Boniface of Savoy (bishop) - Death and Aftermath

Death and Aftermath

The Early English Gothic chapel of Lambeth Palace dates from work carried out while Boniface was archbishop. Boniface left England in November 1268, and never returned. He died 18 July 1270, in Savoy. He was buried with his family in the Cistercian abbey of Hautecombe in Savoy. In his will, he left legacies to all the houses of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the diocese of Canterbury. His will had differing provisions for his burial depending on whether he died in England, France, or near the Alps. Oddly enough, his official seal included a head of the pagan god Jupiter Serapis along with the usual depiction of the archbishop in full vestments.

After his death, his tomb was the center of a cult, and when the tomb was opened in 1580, his body was found to be perfectly preserved. The tomb and effigy was destroyed in the French Revolution, his remains were reburied and a new tomb built in 1839. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839, and his feast day is 14 July.

Although Matthew Paris disapproved of him, modern historians have seen him as a responsible archbishop. The historian D. A. Carpenter says that Boniface "became a respected and reforming archbishop". His episcopal registers do not survive.