The young Boniface, or Winfrid, is traditionally believed to have been born in Crediton, Devon, and was educated in the abbey at Exeter around 690. From 716 he took the message of Christianity to the then pagan peoples of Germany. Having spread Christianity and organised the Church across the Frankish Empire, in 745 Boniface was made first Archbishop of Mainz. On this day, 5th June, in 754 he was martyred at Dokkum in Frisia, and is buried at Fulda in Hesse below what is now a beautiful Baroque Cathedral.