St. Wenceslas
Posted by mom811 on Friday, May 30th, 2008
This is one good thing about travel, it can’t be that we can’t learn as we go along the way. Like this one, I was curious if St. Wenceslas was the same person to the son of the “king” (or Duke), who also ruled in Bohemia after his father. So this sent me on a research. And for the others who may like to know more along this line, same as me before, I’m sharing my findings.
St. Wenceslas is the patron saint of the Czech Republic. He has been known for his charity and care for the poor since long ago, even outside the country. Since 2000, his feast day, September 28, is a national public holiday, celebrated as the Czech Statehood Day.
Our hero, “probably born in 907”, was a Bohemian duke who with his brother Boleslav, were sons of Vratislav I, Duke of Bohemia. Even at an early age, he was already educated by his grandmother in the Christian principle of being upright, thus was already trained to be a righteous ruler. He was learned also of Latin tradition and “read the Holy Scriptures in Latin, Greek, as well as of Slavonic.”
As his father was already dead, at the age of eighteen, Wenceslas assumed governance. He exiled his regent who was opposed to Christianity, and promoted the faith throughout Bohemia. With most of the neighboring nations being pagan, the Duke sought the alliance of German King Henry the Fowler, of which resulted the building of a church, with the relic of St. Vitus in it, given by the king. This explains why the church (now Cathedral of Ss. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert) is within the grounds of Prague Castle.
This faith of Wenceslas was then seen as a threat by the pagan nobility, and a group of nobles succeeded to eliminate him, with his younger brother as the murderer. He repented of his deed three years later, and ordered the transfer of the relics of St. Wenceslas to the St. Vitus Church.
Note: St. Wenceslas is not to be mistaken as the same person to King Wenceslas IV, son of Charles IV, the first Duke of Bohemia to become the Holy Roman Emperor.
Filed in Europe, history, travel |
great ordinary happenings » The Patron Saint of the Czech Republicon 04 Jun 2008 at 10:05 am 1[...] is heart-warming to know that Czech Republic has its roots in Catholicism, shown in their having a patron saint of long ago. His feast day, September 28, is celebrated as the Czech Statehood [...]