vendredi 8 mai 2015

Saint BONIFACE IV, moine bénédictin et Pape



Saint Boniface IV

Pape (67 ème) de 608 à 615 (+ 615)

Il continua fidèlement le pontificat de son maître saint Grégoire le Grand. Il transforma le Panthéon païen en une église et sa maison familiale de Rome en un monastère. Il décida que les moines pouvaient être ordonnés prêtres et exercer pleinement le ministère sacerdotal. Il équilibra les relations pontificales entre les Francs, les Anglais et l'empire germanique. Son culte se répandit grâce au pape Boniface VIII qui avait beaucoup d'admiration pour sa vie et son œuvre. 

À Rome, près de saint Pierre, en 615, saint Boniface IV, pape, qui obtint de l’empereur Phocas le temple du Panthéon, le transforma en église et le consacra à Dieu en l’honneur de sainte Marie et de tous les martyrs.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1115/Saint-Boniface-IV.html

Saint Boniface IV (608-615)

Il était moine bénédictin.

Ce fut lui qui institua la fête de tous les Saints (Toussaint).

Il transforma le Panthéon en temple chrétien, lui épargnant, probablement, la destruction.

SOURCE : http://eglise.de.dieu.free.fr/liste_des_papes_05.htm

Saint Boniface IV

Pape (67e) de 608 à 615

Boniface IV est né dans le territoire dit 'dei Marsi' (aujourd'hui province de L'Aquila) au sein d'une famille riche ; fils de médecin.

Disciple de Grégoire 1er, comme le souligne son épitaphe, il l'imita allant jusqu'à faire de sa propre maison familiale un monastère.

Devenu pape, il favorisa la vie monastique. Famine, peste et calamités naturelles ont marqué la période de son pontificat. Il entretint de bonnes relations avec les autorités de Constantinople, l'empereur Phokas (602-610) et, ensuite, avec son successeur Héraclius (510-641).

L'empereur Phokas l'autorisa à convertir le Panthéon romain en temple consacré à la Vierge Marie et à tous les martyrs. Boniface le remplit de reliques provenant des catacombes. C'était la première fois qu'on franchissait le pas transformant un temple païen en église chrétienne à Rome.

Par l'entremise de Mellitus († 624), évêque de Londres, qui se trouvait à Rome au moment du synode romain de 610, Boniface envoya des lettres à Laurent, archevêque de Cantorbéry, au roi Ethelbert de Kent et au peuple anglais. Saint Colomban (543-615), apôtre d'Irlande, lui écrivit au sujet des célèbres 'Trois chapitres' (qui résumaient les thèses monophysites condamnées par Chalcédoine) qui continuait à envenimer les rapports entre Églises. Boniface fut inhumé à Saint-Pierre.

©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015

SOURCE : http://levangileauquotidien.org/main.php?language=FR&module=saintfeast&localdate=20150508&id=3914&fd=0

Saint Boniface IV (608-615)

Il était moine bénédictin.

Ce fut lui qui institua la fête de tous les Saints (Toussaint).

Il transforma le Panthéon en temple chrétien, lui épargnant, probablement, la destruction.


Mezzo busto di papa Bonifacio IV a San Benedetto dei Marsi


Pope St. Boniface IV

Son of John, a physician, a Marsian from the province and town of Valeria; he succeeded Boniface III after a vacancy of over nine months; consecrated 25 August, 608; d. 8 May, 615 (Duchesne); or, 15 September, 608-25 May, 615 (Jaffé). In the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great he was a deacon of the Roman Church and held the position of dispensator, i.e., the first official in connexion with the administration of the patrimonies. Boniface obtained leave from the Emperor Phocas to convert the Pantheon into a Christian Church, and on 13 May, 609 (?) the temple erected by Agrippa to Jupiter the Avenger, to Venus, and to Mars was consecrated by the pope to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs. (Hence the title S. Maria Rotunda.) It was the first instance at Rome of the transformation of a pagan temple into a place of Christian worship. Twenty-eight cartloads of sacred bones were said to have been removed from the Catacombs and placed in a porphyry basin beneath the high altar. During the pontificate of Boniface, Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, went to Rome "to consult the pope on important matters relative to the newly established English Church" (Bede, H. E., II, iv). Whilst in Rome he assisted at a council then being held concerning certain questions on "the life and monastic peace of monks", and, on his departure, took with him to England the decree of the council together with letters from the pope to Lawrence, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to all the clergy, to King Ethelbert, and to all the English people "concerning what was to be observed by the Church of England". The decrees of the council now extant are spurious. The letter to Ethelbert (in William of Malmesbury, De Gest. Pont., I, 1464, ed Migne) is considered spurious by Hefele (Conciliengeschichte, III, 66), questionable by Haddan and Stubbs (Councils, III, 65), and genuine by Jaffé [Regest. RR. PP., 1988 (1548)].

Between 612-615, St. Columban, then living at Bobbio in Italy, was persuaded by Agilulf, King of the Lombards, to address a letter on the condemnation of the "Three Chapters" to Boniface IV, which is remarkable at once for its expressions of exaggerated deference and its tone of excessive sharpness. In it he tells the pope that he is charged with heresy (for accepting the Fifth Council, i.e. Constantinople, 553), and exhorts him to summon a council and prove his orthodoxy. But the letter of the impetuous Celt, who failed to grasp the import of the theological problem involved in the "Three Chapters", seems not to have disturbed in the least his relation with the Holy See, and it would be wrong to suppose that Columban regarded himself as independent of the pope's authority. During the pontificate of Boniface there was much distress in Rome owing to famine, pestilence, and inundations. The pontiff died in monastic retirement (he had converted his own house into a monastery) and was buried in the portico of St. Peter's. His remains were three times removed—in the tenth or eleventh century, at the close of the thirteenth under Boniface VIII, and to the new St. Peter's on 21 October, 1603. For the earlier inscription on his tomb see Duchesne; for the later, Groisar, "Analecta Romana", I, 193. Boniface IV is commemorated as a saint in the Roman Martyrology on 25 May.

Sources

Liber Pontificalis (ed. DUCHESNE), I, 317; JAFFÉ, Regesta RR. PP. (2nd ed.), I, 220; Acta et Epistolæ in MANSI, X, 501; PAUL THE DEACON, Hist. Longobard., IV, 36 (37); GASQUET, A Short History of the Catholic Church in England (London, 1903), 19; HUNT, A History of the English Church from its Formation to the Norman Conquest (London, 1901), 42; MANN, Lives of the Popes, I, 268-279; VON REUMONT, Gesch. der Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1867), II, 156, 165; GREGOROVIUS, II, 104; LANGEN, 501.

Oestereich, Thomas. "Pope St. Boniface IV." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 8 May 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02660c.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. In memory of Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio — Fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02660c.htm

Boniface IV, Pope (RM)

Born at Valeria, Abruzzi, Italy; died 615. Son of a doctor named John, Boniface may have been a student under Gregory the Great. Boniface was possibly a Benedictine monk of Saint Sebastian in Rome and became a dispensator when he entered papal service. He was elected pope in 608, was responsible for converting the Roman temple of the gods, the Pantheon in Rome, into a Christian church dedicated to Our Lady and all the saints. Boniface corresponded with Saint Columba (or Saint Columbanus?), who chided him for some of his theological stances while expressing devotion and loyalty to him (Benedictines, Delaney).

 SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0508.shtml

(34) 1. BONIFACIO (?-615)

Birth. (No date found), Valeria, Marsi nel Sannio. Son of Giovanni, a physician.

Education. He went to Rome and professed as a monk in the monastery of S. Sebastiano fuori le mura in that city (1).

Cardinalate. Mentioned as deacon cardinalis of the Holy Roman Church and dispensator Ecclesiae Romanae (the highest office in the papal financial administration) in 591. He was elected to the papacy after the death of Pope Boniface III on November 10, 607 but his election was not approved by Byzantine Emperor Phocas until ten months later.

Papacy. Consecrated Pope Boniface IV on August 25, 608. He governed the Church in terrible times of chronic famine, pestilence, floodings and oppression from the Barbarians and he distinguished himself for his great charity. The pope maintained cordial relations with the Byzantine empire and its official representatives in Italy. He counted in the exercise of his apostolic ministry, the energetic and willing cooperation of the new exarch of Italy, Smaragdus. The exarch was probably present at the ceremony of consecration of the new pope, because after the renewal of the three years truce with the Lombards, he gone to Rome for the solemn inauguration, in the Roman Forum, of a column topped by a golden statue of Emperor Phocas; the monument, which was the last erected in Rome to celebrate the emperor, was to symbolize the renewed agreement between Rome and Byzantium. Pope Bonifacius IV obtained from Emperor Phocas authorization to convert the Pantheon (temple of all the gods) into a church dedicating it to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the martyrs. The new church, named S. Maria ad Martyres, was solemnly consecrated on May 13, 609. The pope donated his house for the establishment of a monastery, which he enriched with numerous gifts. The pope actively organized the church in England, where Augustine and his missionaries had recently converted many Anglos to Christianity. In the Roman synod that the pope celebrated in 610 to discuss some problems of the monastic life, one of the participants was Mellitus, first bishop of London. When Bishop Mellitus was preparing to leave, the pope gave him letters for Archbishop Lawrence of Canterbury, King Ethelbert of Kent, and the English people. Bishop Mellitus was also entrusted with the task of communicating to the king and the Church in England approved the decrees of the Synod of 610. The pope recommended, in particular, to apply the provision that allowed bishops to promote the priesthood those who, in monastic communities existing in their dioceses, had the necessary requirements. The schism of the Three Chapters, not yet completely solved in the metropolitan provinces of Milan and Aquileia, was revived with heated discussions when the new Lombard King Agilulf, an Arian, and his wife Theodolinda, a Catholic, favored the repudiation of Pope's Vigilius condemnation of the Three Chapters and Columbanus, a monk from Bobbio and a future Irish saint, persuaded the pope to intervene in the dispute. In a long letter, written in 613, the monk urged the pope, with formulations rather daring, to exercise the supervision that Pope Vigilius, in spite of his name (Vigilant), had left wanting. The monk also wanted the pope to convene a council to demonstrate his orthodoxy. The answer from the pope is unknown. During his pontificate, he ordained thirty six bishops for different sees and eight deacons.

Death. May 8, 615, while in monastic retirement, in Rome. Buried in porticu pontificum of St. Peter's basilica (2). His remains were brought into the interior of the basilica by Pope Nicholas III. Pope Boniface VIII ordered the transfer of the remains of this pontiff to his own burial chapel that was built by Arnolfo di Cambio in St. Peter's basilica (3).

Sainthood. His cult dates back to the time of his canonization by Pope Boniface VIII. Inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, his feast is celebrated on May 25; and on June 1, pro clero Romano.

Bibliography. Bertolini, Paolo. "Bonifacio IV, santo." Enciclopedia dei papi. 3 vols. Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000, I, 579-581; Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, 28; Chacón, Alfonso. itæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. 418 and 423-426; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. XXXVII and 283; D'Amato, Sandro. '"De Civitate Valeria'. Papa S. Bonifacio IV." Bullettino della Deputazione Abruzzese di Storia Patria, 79 (1989), 121-96; De Angelis, Maria Antonietta. "Bonifacio IV, papa, santo." Mondo vaticano. Passato e presente. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, p. 151-152; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 144, no. 43; Gray, P.T.R. ; Herren, M.W. "Colombanus and the Three Chapters Controversy." The Journal of Theological Studies, 45 (1994), 160-70; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 69; Le Liber pontificalis. Paris : E. de Boccard, 1981, 1955. 3 v. : facsims. (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome). Notes: Reprint of the 1955 edition./ Includes indexes./ Vol. 3: "Additions et corrections de L. Duchesne publiées par Cyrille Vogel ... avec L'Histoire du Liber pontificalis dupuis l'édition de L. Duchesne une bibliographie et des tables générales, I, 317-318; Montini, Renzo Uberto. Le tombe dei papi. Roma : Angelo Belardetti, 1957. Note: At head of title: Instituto di studi romani, p. 116-118, no. 67; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 49-51; Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab conditio Ecclesia. Ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1956. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published : Lipsiae : Veit et comp., 1885-1888. Original t.p. included : Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia : ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Editionem secundam correctam et auctam edidit Philippus Jaffè ; auspiciis Gulielmi Wattenbach; curaverunt S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner, P. Ewald, I, 220-222.

Links. Biography by Thomas Oestereich, in English, The Catholic Encyclopedia; biography, in English, Encyclopaedia Britannica; biography, in English, Wikipedia; biography, in English, The Lives of the Popes in the Seventh Century, The History and the Lives of the Popes; biography by Joseph Brusher, S.J., Popes through the Ages; biography by Paolo Bertolini, in Italian, Enciclopedia dei papi, Treccani; brief biographical entry, in Italian, Dizionario bigrafico degli italiani, Treccani; images and biography by Franco Prevato, in Italian, Santi e Beati; his bust and biography, in Italian, S. Benedetto dei Marsi (AQ), radicchio.it; Bonifacio IV: figlio illustre di questa terra marsicana, testi a cura di Americo Roberti, in Italian, Communde di San Benedetto dei Marsi; biography by Sandro D'Amato, in Italian, S. Benedetto Official Web Corner; Marruvium; his image and biography, in Spanish; brief biography by Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz, in German, Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexikons; biography, in Norwegian, Den katolske kirke; his engraving, Fondazione Marco Besso, Rome; his engraving, Fondazione Marco Besso, Rome; another engraving, from the same source; his engraving, Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna; engravings, Araldica Vaticana; his engraving, from "Historia B. Platinae de vitis Pontificum Romanorum", Digital Image Archive, Pitts Theology Library; his engraving, iStockphoto; his image, Shutterstock images; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; , Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek;his engraving, Bildarchiv Austria. Die Bildplattform der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek; another engraving, from the same source; another engraving, also from the same source; his effigy on a medal, Numismatic collection of Olomouc archiepiscopate, Czech Republic; his effigy on another medal, from the same source; and his tomb under the altar of S. Tommaso, St. Peter's basilica, Rome.

(1) This is according to Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, I, pt. 1, 28. "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926, p. 144, no. 43, says that he was Benedictine monk. None of the other sources consulted mention that he was a monk.

(2) This is the text of his epitaph, taken from Montini, Le tombe dei papi, p. 116:

VITA HOMINVM BREVIS EST CERTA HANC DETERMINAT HORA
SED VITAE AETERNAE INDE PARATVR ITER
QVOD NON INDECORA AVT RVRSVM PERITVRA VIDENTVR
SED PVLCHRVM ATQVE DECENS IAM SINE FINE MANET
DIC IGITVR QVID MORS STIMVLIS AGITARIS INIQVIS
QVID FREMIS INCASSVM QVID FVRIBVNDA GERIS
COMMODA NVLLA TIBI POTERVNT TVA FACTA REFERRE
NEC PRODESSE POTEST IMPETVS ISTE TIBI
GREGORII SEMPER MONITA ATQVE EXEMPLA MAGISTRI
VITA OPERE AC DIGNIS MORIBVS ISTE SEQVENS
QVO HVNC TERRERE PVTAS SVNT HVIVS MAXIMA VOTA
MITTERE AD ASTRA ANIMAM REDDERE CORPVS HVMO
SAVCIA MVLTIPLICI SI QVIDEM NAM MEMBRA DOLORE
RVRSVS IN ANTIQVO PVLVERE VERSA MANENT
QVAE CONIVNCTA ANIMAE STABILITO IN CORPORE SVRGANT
AD VITAM AETERNAM TE PEREVNTE MAGIS
SANCTA FIDES MERITO VITAE CLEMENTIA PATRIS
SPEM CERTAM HANC FAMVLOS IVSSIT HABERE SVOS

HIC REQVIESCIT BONIFATIVS IVNIOR QVI SEDIT ANNOS V MENSES VIlI DIES XII
DEPOSITVS OCT IDVS MAli IMPERANTE DOM N ERACLIO .... ANNO EIVS II

(3) Pope Boniface VIII placed the following inscription on the tomb of his prdecessor, transcrubed by Montini, Le tombe dei papi, p. 117:

+ GREGORIO QVARTVS IAGET HIG BONIFAGIVS ALMVS
HVIVS Q (ui) SEDIS FVIT AEQVVS RECTOR ET AEDIS:
TEMPORE Q(ui) FOGAE GERNENS TEMPLVM FORE ROMAE
DELVBRA CVNCTORVM FVERANT QVO DEMONIOR(um):
HOC EXPVRGAVIT SANCTIS CVNCTIS Q(ue) DICAVIT:
EIVS NATALIS SOLLEMPNIA QVI CELEBRATIS:
PRIMIS SEPTEMBRIS FERT HAEC LVX QVARTA K (a)L (en)DIS

OCTAVVS TITVLO HOC BONIFATIVS OSSA REPERTA
HAC LOCAT ERECTA BONIFATII NOMINIS ARA

    Montini adds on p. 118 that when the chapel built by Pope Boniface VIII was demolished on October 20, 1605, during the construction of the new basilica of St. Peter, the remains of that pontiff were transferred to the groto of the baislica, while the remains of Pope Boniface IV were placed in the new basilica under the altar of S. Tommaso, in the Clementine chapel, with the customary led plate with an inscription. Externally, the sarcophagus that contains it, has a cross of red mosaic and in its four fields it has the inscription:

CORPVS      SANCTI
BONIFACII      PAPAE IV

SOURCE : http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios591.htm#Bonifacio

Pope Saint Boniface IV

Memorial

8 May

formerly 25 May

Profile

Son of a physician named John. Student under Saint Gregory the GreatBenedictine monk at the Saint Sebastian Abbey in RomeItaly. Served as deacon under Saint Gregory the Great; dispenser of alms and patrimonies. Chosen 67th Pope in 608.

Converted the Roman temple of the old gods, the Pantheon, to a Christian church dedicated to Our Lady and all the Martyrs in 609, the first such conversion of a temple from pagan to Christian use in Rome. Supported the expansion of the faith into England, and met with the first bishop of London. Encouraged reforms among the clergy, and balanced it with improvements in their living and working conditions. Corresponded with Saint Columba. Worked to alleviate the sufferings in Rome due to famine and the disease that follows it. Late in life he converted his own house into a monastery and lived there, dividing his time between his papal work and life as a prayerful monk.

Born

c.550 at Valeria, AbruzziItaly

Papal Ascension

25 August 608

Died

615 at RomeItaly of natural causes

relics moved c.1100

relics moved in the late 13th century by order of Pope Boniface VIII

relics re-interred in Saint Peter’s BasilicaRomeItaly on 21 October 1603

Canonized

Pre-Congregation

Additional Information

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Catholic Encyclopedia

New Catholic Dictionary

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

other sites in english

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Debra Booton McCoy

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images

Wikimedia Commons

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano2001 edición

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Cathopedia

Santi e Beati

MLA Citation

“Pope Saint Boniface IV“. CatholicSaints.Info. 8 May 2021. Web. 5 June 2022. <https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-boniface-iv/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-boniface-iv/

Saint of the Day – 8 May – Saint Pope Boniface IV (c 550-615)

Posted on May 8, 2021

Saint of the Day – 8 May – Saint Pope Boniface IV (c 550-615) Bishop of Rome from 608 until his death, Deacon, Assistant and dDsciple of St Pope Gregory the Great, Papal Treasurer under Pope Gregory. Born c 550 at Valeria, Abruzzi, Italy and died in 615 at Rome, Italy of natural causes.

Boniface was the son of a man named Johannes, a Physician, from the area of Maria and town of Valeria. It is assumed that he was a student of Pope Gregory I. Around 591, Boniface was ordained a Cardinal-Deacon. Under that office, he served Gregory as treasurer . In other words, he was the first official in connection with the administration of papal property.

Boniface IV was elected to succeed Boniface III but a vacancy of over nine months ensued, awaiting imperial confirmation from Constantinople. He was consecrated on 25 September 608.

Like his mentor, he ran the Lateran Palace as a Monastery. As Pope, he encouraged Monasticism. With imperial permission, he converted the Pantheon into a Church. This was the first pagan temple in Rome to be transformed. On 13 May 609, the Pantheon was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin and all the Christian Martyrs. Boniface ordered 28 cartloads of bones from the Catacombs to be reburied under the high Altar of the new Church.

In 610, St Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, went to Rome “to consult the pope on important matters relative to the newly established English Church.” While in Rome, he assisted at a Synod concerning certain questions on “the life and monastic peace of monks” and, on his departure, took to England the Decree of the Council together with letters from the Pope to Archbishop Laurence of Canterbury and to all the clergy, to King Æthelberht of Kent and to all the Anglo-Saxons.

Inspired by Gregory the Great, he converted his home into a Monastery and divided his time between the Monk’s life and the Papal life until he died. He was buried at his Monastery and reburied several times, the last time at the new St Peter’s Basilica on 21 October 1603.

Author: AnaStpaul

Passionate Catholic. Being a Catholic is a way of life - a love affair "Religion must be like the air we breathe..."- St John Bosco Prayer is what the world needs combined with the example of our lives which testify to the Light of Christ. This site, which is now using the Traditional Calendar, will mainly concentrate on Daily Prayers, Novenas and the Memorials and Feast Days of our friends in Heaven, the Saints who went before us and the great blessings the Church provides in our Catholic Monthly Devotions. "For the saints are sent to us by God as so many sermons. We do not use them, it is they who move us and lead us, to where we had not expected to go.” Charles Cardinal Journet (1891-1975) This site adheres to the Catholic Church and all her teachings.

SOURCE : https://anastpaul.com/2021/05/08/saint-of-the-day-8-may-saint-pope-boniface-iv-c-550-615/


Oleografia Panigati e Meneghini Milano. Cromolitografia in L. Tripepi, Ritratti e biografie dei romani pontefici: da S. Pietro a Leone 13, Roma, Vaglimigli Davide, 1879, 26 x 17,7, Municipal Library of Trento  


San Bonifacio IV Papa

8 maggio

m. 615

(Papa dal 25/08/608 al 8/05/615)

Originario della regione dei Marsi, fu eletto dopo nove mesi di sede vacante. Ottenne dall'imperatore il Pantheon, che consacrò alla Vergine e a tutti i suoi santi martiri.

Martirologio Romano: A Roma presso san Pietro, san Bonifacio IV, papa, che trasformò in chiesa il tempio del Pantheon ottenuto dall’imperatore Foca e lo dedicò a Dio in onore della Beata Maria e di tutti i martiri; fu pieno di meriti anche a riguardo della vita monastica.

C'è questo Pontefice all’origine della festa di Ognissanti, che celebriamo il 1° novembre. Aveva ricevuto in dono da Foca, imperatore d’Oriente, un gioiello dell’architettura romana, fatto costruire 600 anni prima da Marco Vipsanio Agrippa, genero di Augusto e capo della flotta imperiale: il tempio della dea Cibele, più noto come Pantheon (tempio di tutti gli dèi, secondo un’interpretazione corrente). Bonifacio lo rimise in ordine salvandolo dalla rovina (Roma, all’epoca,era una distesa di ruderi),ne fece un tempiocristiano e il 1° novembredi un anno imprecisatolo dedicò solennementealla Madonna ea tutti i santi martiri, cheda allora vennero festeggiatiannualmente alla stessadata; prima nella sola Roma, poi via viain tutta la Chiesa, onorando con essi isanti non martiri e anche quelli non canonizzati,«il cui nome è noto a Dio».

Bonifacio IV, abruzzese di origine, figliodi un medico, si è fatto monaco benedettino,e dall’anno 590 al 604 è statouno dei più vicini collaboratori di papaGregorio Magno: una sorta di “ministrodel Tesoro”, al tempo in cui quelgrande Pontefice doveva soccorrere Roma,una città affamata per le inondazionio le siccità (disastrose per i raccolti),decimata dalle continue epidemie.

È stato chiamato a guidare la Chiesain modo inaspettato e in una situazionedifficile: il suo predecessore BonifacioIII è morto dopo soli nove mesi di pontificato,e la Sede è rimasta vacante per altridieci mesi. Salito poi in cattedra a fineagosto del 608, si trova a fronteggiarele emergenze che ha già conosciutoai tempi di GregorioMagno. Dall’Inghilterrapoi, come Gregorio, ricevenotizie di gravi dissensitra cristiani sulladata della Pasqua e sullaliturgia. Poi ci sonocontrasti tra i monaci e ivescovi. Nell’anno 610 vienea parlargli di questi problemiil vescovo di Londra, Mellito. Lui loinvita a partecipare al concilio che vi sitiene in quell’anno, e gli consegna poi idocumenti conciliari che lo aiuterannoad affrontare i problemi sorti tra episcòpie monasteri.

L’Italia è ora un condominio spartitotra Longobardi e Impero d’Oriente, alquale appartiene anche Roma. Ma i sovraniabbandonano praticamente a séstessi i sudditi italiani (gli Italiotes, comeli chiamano) perché l’Impero passadi crisi in crisi. L’imperatore Foca ha uccisoil suo predecessore Maurizio, e saràucciso dal successore Eraclio. E poil’impero viene attaccato in Dalmazia dagliÀvari e dagli Slavi, che lo costringonoa “comprare” la pace. Ma il pericolomortale arriva dalla Persia, quandol’esercito del re Cosroe sferra un attaccogenerale, occupando Siria e Libano, dilagando in Palestina e impadronendosianche di Gerusalemme.

Nel saccheggio della Città Santa, vieneportata via anche la reliquia della SantaCroce. Tutti i giorni arriva una cattivanotizia per Bonifacio IV, il Papa che continuaa vivere tra preghiera e penitenzacome un monaco, e che muore nel momentodi maggior pericolo per la cristianitàorientale. Sarà poi canonizzato, ottosecoli dopo, da un successore col suostesso nome: Bonifacio VIII.

Autore: Franco Prevato

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/89067