Saint Wenceslaus

Martyr – optional memorial

In Stará Boleslav (Bohemia), Saint Wenceslaus, duke of Bohemia and grandson of Saint Ludmila (herself also martyred), was assassinated.

The ancient biographies present the young prince as deeply concerned with the cultural and, above all, the religious renewal of his people, and the Church venerates him as a martyr. The reasons for his murder are not entirely clear: it was a fratricide, for his own brother, Boleslaus, struck him down.

He was killed in the year 929, not yet thirty years old. Even if political motives played a part, Wenceslaus began to be honored as a saint almost immediately after his death. In the centuries that followed, he came to be regarded as the model of both national and religious heroism for the Czech people.

He is the first Slav to have been raised to the honor of the altars.