Anonymous ID: f20f1f Dec. 12, 2018, 9:30 p.m. No.4287741   🗄️.is đź”—kun

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St. Boniface, martyr and patron saint of Germania, traveled from England to Frisia and Bavaria, or modern day Germany, in the seventh century to evangelize the mostly pagan tribes there, and organize the region’s scattered community of Christians. The paganism practiced by the locals was known for worshiping Thor, the “God of Thunder”. However, this wasn’t the Thor we know who fights galactic villains in comic books and on silver screens. This Thor demanded human sacrifice.

 

In a winter ritual that took place under the “Thunder Oak” tree that the pagans dedicated to this “God of Thunder”, the pagans would often sacrifice a child.

 

During one such ritual in the winter of 722, St. Boniface came to the site of the sacrifice with a gospel message that shocked the pagans. He chopped down the great oak tree with an axe before they could make their sacrifice. This in itself surprised them because, being so closely associated with a deity, they believed the tree could not be chopped down and even boasted that Boniface’s God could not destroy the tree of Thor.

 

After the great oak tree fell, St. Boniface replaced it with a small fir tree and told the pagans about the child Jesus. Many people today have good reasons to believe these words of his, referring to this young fir, are the origins of the Christmas tree tradition:

 

“This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your holy tree tonight. It is the wood of peace… It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are ever green. See how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the Christ-child; gather about it, not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.”

 

https://media.ascensionpress.com/2018/06/05/a-christmas-story-in-june-st-boniface-thor-and-german-communion/