THREE MINUTES WITH THE SAINTS
Saint Boniface and the Origin of the Christmas Tree
The history of your favorite holiday decoration goes back 1400 years
Today is the first Sunday of Advent (be sure to get your Advent wreaths), and for the next four Sundays of this Christmas season, my weekly “Three Minutes With the Saints” article will have a Christmas theme. We start things off with the origin of everyone’s favorite Christmas decoration, the Christmas tree, and its connection to a saint who lived 1400 years ago.
St. Boniface is known today as the Apostle of Germany because of his missionary work among the pagan Germanic tribes in the 8th century. But he was actually born in Anglo-Saxon England around the year 675, and his early years in the priesthood were spent there as a Benedictine monk. Then, in 719, he was appointed missionary bishop to Germany by Pope Gregory II and sent on his first missionary journey to the region.
Around the year 723, Boniface and a small group of monks were travelling in the region of Lower Hesse (part of modern-day Germany) when Boniface learned of a winter ritual held by a tribe at Geismar. This tribe worshiped the Norse god Thor (yes, the one the Marvel character is based on) and as part of their winter ritual they would sacrifice a child…
