St. Wenceslas

Raised in Faith by St. Ludmila

St. Wenceslas was born around 907 near Prague, the son of Duke Vratislav I of Bohemia, in a land where Christianity was still young and contested. He was raised in the faith largely by his grandmother, St. Ludmila, who was murdered in 921 at the instigation of his mother, Drahomíra, during the power struggles that followed his father's death. When Wenceslas came of age and assumed the government of Bohemia in the 920s, he set himself to rule as a Christian prince.

A Christian Prince in Bohemia

The early accounts of his life describe a ruler of genuine personal piety and mercy: devoted to the Eucharist, generous to the poor, widows, and orphans, a builder of churches — including the rotunda of St. Vitus in Prague, forerunner of the great cathedral — and a promoter of clergy and missionaries in a partly pagan land. His policy of peace with the German king and his vigorous Christianizing measures earned him enemies among the Bohemian nobility, who gathered around his ambitious younger brother, Boleslav.

Murder at the Church Door

Invited by Boleslav to celebrate a church feast at the settlement now called Stará Boleslav, Wenceslas was attacked on his way to morning Mass on September 28, 935 — some older sources give 929, but 935 is the date most historians now accept — and was cut down at the church door by his brother and his brother's men. He was immediately venerated as a martyr, and within a few years Boleslav himself, in penance, had the body translated to the church of St. Vitus in Prague.

Good King and National Patron

Wenceslas rapidly became the heavenly patron of the Bohemian nation, and later tradition accorded him the posthumous title of king — the origin of the 'Good King' of the nineteenth-century Christmas carol, which celebrates his charity to the poor. His tomb in the Wenceslas Chapel of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague remains a national shrine, the Crown of St. Wenceslas crowned Bohemia's kings, and the great square that bears his name is the symbolic heart of the Czech capital. His feast, September 28, is a public holiday in the Czech Republic, where he is honored as patron of the Czech people and state.

Significance

Wenceslas tried to govern by the Gospel at a time when Christianity in his land was young and power was fiercely contested. His mercy to the poor, love for the Eucharist, and support for the Church cost him his life at the hands of his own brother. Honored as patron of the Czech people and celebrated in a Christmas carol for his charity, he shows that public leadership can become a path to holiness when it serves God and the weak.