Who he was
Boniface, son of a physician named John, was a Marsian from Valeria. Under St Gregory the Great he was a deacon and the chief administrator of the Church's estates. He was consecrated in 608 after a vacancy of over nine months; the exact dates of his reign differ slightly between the historians.
What he is remembered for
With the Emperor Phocas's leave he turned the Pantheon in Rome into a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs, the first pagan temple in Rome made a Christian church. He received Mellitus, first Bishop of London, and sent him home with letters for the young English Church, and he received a famously outspoken letter from St Columbanus. He turned his own house into a monastery and died there.
He is honoured by the Church as Saint. Read his page in the dictionary of saints.
Sources
All popes · Home · All saints