Memorial of St. Boniface, 675-754; asked by the pope to reform the Church of Germany; on his first visit in 719, he found that paganism was a way of life; he later admitted that his work would have been unsuccessful, from a human viewpoint, without a letter of safe-conduct from Charles Martel, the powerful Frankish ruler, grandfather of Charlemagne; Boniface restored the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope of Rome; he also established many houses of prayer which took the form of Benedictine monasteries