BONIFACE, martyr, saint.
A martyr of this name is unknown to the ancient testimonies of the Roman tradition, although he is commemorated in the *Martyrologium Romanum* on 14 May. He is probably the namesake martyr of Tarsus, whose relics were transferred from Syria to the Aventine in Rome at the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century, following the Arab invasion. On this occasion, in fact, the Eastern Passion of the martyr was reworked, and B. was arbitrarily presented as the procurator of the Roman matron Aglæ, with whom he lived in sin. After converting to penance, he is said to have gone to the East in expiation to seek holy bodies, but there he himself met martyrdom; his body was brought back to Rome by his servants, where Aglæ erected a basilica in his honor. The oldest reliable document that mentions the existence of a church on the Aventine dedicated to B., in which his body rested, is the *De locis sanctis martyrum quae sunt foris civitatem Romae* from the first half of the 7th century. This church, which still exists today, was a diaconia in the 8th century, but at the end of the 10th century it was granted by Benedict VII to the metropolitan Sergio for the restoration of monastic life. From then on, the name of the first titular saint was joined to that of Alexis (v.), which later came to prevail exclusively in the denomination of the church and the monastery.
Agostino Amore
B. IN FOLKLORE AND THEATRE.
St. B. inspired a *Maggio*, a popular representation typical of Tuscan peasant culture, in which the entire plot of the legend is developed with romantic flair, though not without vividness and dramatic force. The five-act play features a great variety of episodes and richly pathetic situations, so much so that D’Ancona describes the *Maggio* of St. B. as «an example of the highest peak this peasant form of drama could ever reach.» On the same theme, a sacred tragedy was written by Bishop Scipione Agnelli Maffei, and another by Bartolomeo Lucchini, printed in 1648. An unpublished one was also composed by Cardinal Rospigliosi, who later became Pope Clement IX.