En
De
HEILIGES ZENTRUM DER SAXONIE
MONASTERY CHURCH
ST. BONIFACE
Pray the St. Boniface Novena
to ask for his intercession!
The monastery church of St. Bonifatius in Zscheiplitz was built in the late 11th century, perhaps also
in the early 12th century.
It belongs to the type of so-called choir tower churches: the square tower is located in the east and forms the reticulated chancel in the basement. This is followed by a semicircular apse with a two-part tracery window. To the west follows the very elongated, rectangular nave, which was expanded again in the first half of the 13th century. During this time a nun's gallery was added. A round arched double arcade opens below it. The lower room later served as a family crypt for the owners of the property.
Boniface (675–754), born Winfrid in the Devon town of Crediton in Anglo-Saxon England, was a leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He organized significant foundations of the church in Germany and was made archbishop of Mainz by Pope Gregory III. He was martyred in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others, and his remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus that became a site of pilgrimage. He is venerated as a saint in the Christian church and became the patron saint of Germania, known as the "Apostle to the Germans".
View of the church of St. Boniface
Soon a chapel-like room was added to the north side of the church, again with a semicircular apse in the east, and a gallery over a double arcade to the west. This extension has early Gothic windows and doors. In the bell storey of the tower there are round-arched double sound openings.
The only valuable piece of the older furnishings is a Gothic limestone relief. Jesus Christ is depicted as the Man of Sorrows. The work should be scheduled around 1500.
The church, which became more and more dilapidated after 1945, was ceremoniously reopened with a church service on November 13, 1994 thanks to the longstanding commitment of the monastery brothers.

Today the church is used for concerts and weddings (Pfarramt Freyburg).