Feast day: September 28

St. Wenceslaus

Duke, Martyr · c. 907–935

Patron of Bohemia, the Czech people

A young Christian duke of Bohemia, raised by his saintly grandmother, known for his justice and kindness to the poor, who was murdered by his own brother at a church door.

Wenceslaus — Václav — was a duke of Bohemia in the early tenth century and is honoured as the patron and heavenly protector of the Czech people; he is the 'Good King Wenceslas' of the famous English Christmas carol. Born about 907, he was raised in the Christian faith by his saintly grandmother, St. Ludmila, in a land still half-pagan and torn between Christian and heathen factions.

His father died when he was a boy, and his mother, of the pagan party, governed in his stead — a period that saw the murder of his grandmother Ludmila. On coming of age Wenceslaus took the reins of government and ruled as a sincere Christian prince: just, merciful, personally devout, generous to the poor, and a builder of churches, including the first church of St. Vitus in Prague.

His piety and his policy of peace with the neighbouring German kingdom angered the pagan nobles and his own ambitious younger brother, Boleslav. In 935 Boleslav invited Wenceslaus to a feast and, the next morning, set upon him at the door of the church and murdered him with the help of his companions.

Venerated at once as a martyr, Wenceslaus became the symbol of the Czech nation and its Christian identity, his crown the emblem of Bohemian statehood. His tomb in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague remains a national shrine.

He is the 'Good King Wenceslas' of the Christmas carol — a real duke famous for carrying firewood to the poor through the winter snow before his brother killed him.

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/15587b.htm