Boniface of Savoy (bishop)

Blessed Boniface of Savoy
Archbishop of Canterbury
The site of Lambeth Palace, where Boniface built as an archbishop
Church	Catholic Church
Appointed	1 February 1241
Installed	1249
Term ended	18 July 1270
Predecessor	Edmund of Abingdon
Successor	William Chillenden
Orders
Consecration	15 January 1245 by Innocent IV
Personal details
Died	18 July 1270[1] Savoy
Buried	Hautecombe Abbey
Parents	Thomas I, Count of Savoy Margaret of Geneva
Sainthood
Feast day	14 July
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Beatified	1839 by Gregory XVI

Boniface of Savoy (c. 1207 – 18 July 1270) was a medieval Bishop of Belley in Savoy and Archbishop of Canterbury in England. He was the son of Thomas, Count of Savoy and owed his initial ecclesiastical posts to his father. Other members of his family were also clergymen, and a brother succeeded his father as count. One niece Eleanor of Provence was married to King Henry III of England, and another was married to King Louis IX of France. It was Henry who secured Boniface's election as Archbishop, and throughout his tenure of that office, he spent much time on the continent. He clashed with his bishops, with his nephew-by-marriage, and with the papacy but managed to eliminate the archiepiscopal debt that he had inherited on taking office. During Simon de Montfort's struggle with King Henry, Boniface initially helped Montfort's cause but later supported the king. After his death in Savoy, his tomb became the object of a cult, and he was eventually beatified in 1839.