Saint Wenceslas

Wenceslas was born around 907, the son of Vratislaus, duke of Bohemia, and of Drahomíra. The country was only partly Christian, and that split ran right through his home: he was raised as a Christian by his paternal grandmother, Ludmila, who is also a saint, while his mother and his brother Boleslaus sided with the pagan faction. Ludmila was strangled in 921 with her own veil, on the orders — says tradition — of her daughter-in-law. Wenceslas, still very young, became duke and set about Christianizing Bohemia with the help of missionary monks, keeping up relations with the Empire. It was a political choice as well as a religious one, and it earned him the hostility of part of the nobility. His brother Boleslaus tried several times to kill him. He succeeded on September 28, 935, at Stará Boleslav: he lured him to a feast and had hired killers attack him at the church door, as he was going to morning Mass. He is the patron of Bohemia and the Czech national symbol: Prague’s main square bears his name, and the Crown of Saint Wenceslas is the crown of the kings of Bohemia. There’s also a nineteenth-century English Christmas carol, *Good King Wenceslas*, that tells of him personally bringing firewood and food to a poor man in the snow. It has become one of the most sung Christmas carols in the world. If your name is Wenceslas, today is your name day.