Our Fourth Holy Door – St Boniface’s Shrine

On Wednesday 19th November 2025 – a coach left Liskeard with parishioners from our four churches making our fourth and final Holy Door visit celebrating the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Stopping on our pilgrimage was the Catholic Church of St Boniface, Crediton, Devon and the National Shrine of St Boniface. The church today is clearly a modern building, constructed in the late 1960s. A foundation stone in the porch was gifted by the Bishop of Fulda and blessed by the late Bishop of Plymouth, Cyril Restieaux. The Diocese of Fulda also donated relics of St Boniface – one of which is placed in the altar, while the other {a part of his vertebrae} is housed in the shrine area. Additionally, the local Anglican church contributed a stone from the medieval parish church, which has been incorporated into the baptistry.

St Boniface was born around AD 680 in Crediton, Devon. His baptismal name was Wynfrid or Wynfrith, he grew up in Crediton. He first studied at a Benedictine monastery in Exeter before moving to Nursling {Nhutscelle}, near Southampton, where he was ordained as a priest. Although he was a noted scholar and teacher, he felt the call to missionary work.

Wynfrid spent most of his life travelling extensively in Northern Europe as an apostle, re-organizing the Christian church. During these years Pope Gregory III granted him the insignia of Archbishop, and he was renamed Boniface. In 753, as he grew older, Boniface resigned from his diocese and set out once more to evangelize the Frisian tribes. In 754, near Dokkum, he and his companions were ambushed by a band of pagan warriors. Boniface was struck down, and according to tradition, he raised up a book to shield himself, which was pierced by a sword. According to his wishes, his body was taken to his Abbey at Fulda for burial, where his tomb remains a site of pilgrimage. His holiness, wisdom, and martyrdom affirmed his status as a saint.
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We then visited the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon, Crediton. Before Exeter Cathedral was built in the twelfth century, this Collegiate Church was the Cathedral for the diocese of Sherborne.