This study gathers current English-language scholarship about the monk Wynfrith, whom Pope Gregory II renamed Boniface and who labored in German-speaking lands for almost forty years until his martyrdom with fifty-two companions in the present-day Netherlands. Sixteen scholars offer essays, organized into four parts: biography and cultural context, written sources, geographical spheres of activity, and historical reception.

Part 1 reveals biographical aspects: Boniface's English upbringing, monastic training, and his notable engagement of women as missionary partners. The late Rudolf Schieffer outlines Boniface's life as a monastic founder, papal legate to German-speaking lands, and eventually archbishop of Mainz. For Barbara Yorke, there is a similarity between Boniface's Wessex and Continental German lands. Both were Christian frontiers with dual religious cultures. James T. Palmer introduces the connection between Boniface's missionary efforts to bring Christianity to new communities and his work to reform existing churches. Felice Lifshitz gives a fine historiographical introduction to the study of women monastic missionaries. Her goal is “to define feminist consciousness” (70) in her subjects. She does this by studying books produced by women. For Lifshitz, Boniface was a gender egalitarian who likened himself to Paul and Thecla, collaborating in evangelization.

Part 2 examines written sources. It looks at Boniface's erudition and correspondence, the surviving hagiographic vitae, and his influence on penitentials and church councils. Emily V. Thornbury considers Boniface's educational background, which was centered on the teaching of Latin from classical models. Michael Aaij's study of Boniface's correspondence supports Palmer's assertion of Boniface's twin goals of conversion and reform. Shannon Godlove's two essays on the extant vitae are written with respect for postcolonial questions about missionary activity. In that light, she replaces the term missionary with Christianizer. Godlove also explores the Pauline interpretation of Boniface by Othloh of Saint Emmeram (eleventh century). Her table of vitae is an excellent resource. For Rob Meens, in “Boniface: Preaching and Penance,” the early penitentials provided a rational discourse with people wedded to pre-Christian beliefs. Michael Glathaar argues that Boniface's synodal activity was significant for subsequent church life. His essay includes a translation of Sententiae Bonifatianae Wirceburgenses and a “chronological survey of Boniface's activity at councils.”

The third collection addresses Boniface's regional activities. Michael Edward Moore understands Boniface's dealings with the Carolingians as part of the papacy's turn towards the West and away from Byzantium. John-Henry Clay's work on Hessia and Thuringia puts documentary evidence together with archaeology, revealing seasons of church-building and subsequent destruction. Clay gives a concise account of the incident of the Oak of Jupiter. Leanne Good's essay on Bavaria is only tangentially about Boniface. She writes more broadly about the development of Christianity in Bavaria and points out that the Bonifatian era was more about correction than conversion. Marco Mostert's treatment of Boniface in Frisia gives evidence for Schieffer's argument about conversion from above. By the time of Boniface's final journey to Frisia, Christianity was established with a bishopric at Utrecht, partly with Carolingian patronage. Though ecclesiastical politics prompted Boniface's visit, his martyrdom occurred at the frontier of Christian settlement.

Essays about Boniface's veneration and historical reception form part 4. Peter Kehl's evidence for medieval veneration is mainly from liturgical texts and secondarily from reliquaries. Liturgical memorials to Boniface began immediately after his death, in Frisia, England, Germania, and Francia. Janneke Raajmakers looks at the place of Boniface in the lore of Fulda Abbey, where he is buried. Fulda's monks celebrated him not as their founder, a recognition given to Saint Sturmi, but rather as their patron saint. Siegfried Weichlin's essay, “Boniface as a Political Saint in Germany in the 19th and 20th Centuries,” makes the general argument that political uses of a saint are inherently ahistorical. Portrayals of Boniface were shaped by a national-religious debate involving German nationalism and allegiance to Rome. Michael Aaij's “Popular Veneration and the Image of Boniface in the Modern Era” gives an overview from the Nazi era to today. One of the last instances he cites is of a Dutch play portraying Boniface as “a symbol of violent and intolerant Christianity” (469).

The book gives a good state of the question regarding Boniface's life and subsequent reception. It is well produced, with occasional illustrations and maps.