Good King Wenceslas
Today I have an early Christmas gift for you. But first let me tell you a little about one of the saints of the day, the martyr Vaclav of Bohemia. The Czech nation looks on Svaty Vaclav, Saint Vaclav, as one of their national heroes and as the model of a Christian ruler. Saint Vaclav died on the morning September 28, 935 A.D. on his way to church—indeed, it was on the very doorstep of the church that he breathed his last.
Vaclav was born in 907 A.D. in the land of Bohemia, which is now a part of the Czech Republic. His father was the Duke of Bohemia, [Vratislaus the First. Vratislaus] and he was a Christian. His grandfather [Borivoj] was also a Christian, converted by Saints Cyril and Methodius, the “Apostles to the Slavs,” who did mission work among the Slavic people and who invented the Cyrillic alphabet, which is still used today for writing Russian and Ukrainian and many other languages.
Vaclav’s father was a Christian, but his mother was a pagan by the name of Drahomira. Drahomira was a sly woman. She got baptized in order to be married to the Duke, but she never really gave up her pagan ways. Then, in the year 921, when the boy Vaclav was only 13, his father died in battle [against the Magyars, the Hungarians]. Vaclav was too young to assume his father’s place as duke, so who would rule the land of Bohemia?
Vaclav ended up living with his grandmother Ludmila, a truly Christian woman. Ludmila made sure that Vaclav knew the ways of Christ and what would be expected of him by God when he became the duke. Drahomira the pagan resented this arrangement terribly, and she drummed up support from among some of the noblemen who also preferred paganism to Christianity. Seeing the tide of favor turn against her, the old grandmother Ludmila went into hiding. In time, though, Drahomira tracked her down and had her put to death by strangulation.
Drahomira reclaimed her son and sought to bring back him, and all of Bohemia, to the idolatrous practices of their pagan past. Vaclav was just a teenager, but he was man enough to know truth from falsehood, and so he in secret continued to practice the Christian faith, biding his time until he reached the age when he would be crowned as duke. That finally happened in 925, when Vaclav was a mere 18 years old. He immediately restored Christianity as the faith of Bohemia.
Duke Vaclav was a rare blend of idealism and pragmatism. In political matters, he operated with a lot of savvy. Many of the Bohemian nobility would have liked to see him fight for an independent Bohemia, free of the Hungarians and the Germans and the Moravians. But Vaclav understood that this was a fight his country couldn’t win at that time, so he allied himself with Henry the First of Germany, preferring to be subject to a Christian ruler than a pagan.
Within his land, Vaclav set out on the path of reform. He instituted a new and fairer judicial system for his people. He worked to secure peace for his people through treaties and reconciliation. He commissioned the building of several churches with his own money, and he protected the Christians from the abuses of the pagans. These actions incurred the wrath of one of his neighbors, Count Radislas of Gurima. Radislas mustered an army to invade Bohemia and depose Vaclav. Vaclav did not wish for so many of his own people to die just to defend him. So he bravely challenged Radislas to single combat, mano a mano, winner take all. Vaclav showed up for the fight with just a short sword. Radislas, a seasoned warrior, came fully armed. Radislas expected to end the duel with a single thrust of his lance and so become the ruler of two countries. But at the last second, the eyes of his understanding were opened, and he saw two angels flanking Saint Vaclav on either side, protecting him. The lance thrust missed its target and Radislas tumbled into the dirt at Vaclav’s feet. He was at the Christian’s mercy. And mercy he showed, sparing the invader’s life, and dictating terms of peace between their peoples.
Vaclav’s idealism was also seen in the way that he comported himself personally and among his subjects. He behaved, not like a tyrant, but like a servant. He ruled with calmness and compassion. His heart was soft toward the poor, towards orphans and widows, towards prisoners, even. He gave away alms freely. He walked among his people, seeking out the company of the less fortunate, conversing with them, bringing them gifts and provisions. He was known for leaving the palace after dark, accompanied by a single servant, walking barefoot, to go and pray in the churches and to tend to the needy. He himself would gather firewood and bring it to the homes of those without fuel. He himself would help to sow the wheat, and harvest it, and thresh it, to provide bread for the Eucharist. He himself would tend the vines and harvest grapes and tread them out to make wine for Communion. He passed long hours in prayer, and attended church services faithfully. He never married, preferring the almost monastic existence of labor and contemplation that he lived so joyfully from such a young age. The common people loved him … but not the noblemen.
Why? As a ruler he lived by the words of Christ that we find in Matthew 20:25-26—
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.”
Vaclav’s simple and chaste way of life was a stark contrast to the other Bohemian nobles. They resented the way he showed them to be greedy and self-serving. In particular, Vaclav had a younger brother, Boleslav. Boleslav was very much his mother’s son, a chip off the old pagan block. Boleslav was not a Christian, at least not at heart. He liked the living the high life, and he saw his older brother as a killjoy and a coward.
Boleslav decided the time had come for a new duke for Bohemia. He invited his brother to come to church with him on September 27, then to stay and dine. Boleslav and his buddies were eating and drinking and whooping it up, Vaclav maintained his Christian temperance and moderation. The next morning, September 28 of the year 929, Vaclav got up early to go to church again. Boleslav and three of his henchmen set out to follow. The histories disagree as to whether Vaclav, our hero, knew that trouble was brewing. Some say he did not; others say he did, and simply put his trust in God’s protection, as he had in the duel with Radislas.
Just as he approached the door of the church, Vaclav turned and saw Boleslav behind him. “Brother,” he said, “you were a good subject to me yesterday.” Boleslav answered, “And now I intend to be a better one,” just as he was swinging his sword at his brother’s head. Vaclav tried to escape and get into the church, to a place of sanctuary. But his brother’s helpers were too many and too fast. They cut him down on the threshold of the church. On that day, the evil Boleslav became the new duke of his people; but Vaclav became their saint and their hero, as he remains to this day. He also became their first king—because the German emperor bestowed the title of king on him after his death, as a gesture of respect and honor.
We call Saint Vaclav a martyr. In what sense? Did his brother assassinate him because he was a Christian, or because he stood in the way of the throne? The truth is, if Vaclav were not a Christian, Boleslav probably wouldn’t have been alive to take the throne. Among the pagan rulers, it was commonplace for a prince to have all other heirs to the throne banished or killed. In the end, it was Vaclav’s Christian mercy that gave life to his murderer. And it was Vaclav’s love of peace and hatred for war that caused him to subordinate his land to a Christian emperor. His brother wanted Bohemia to be independent, so that he would be king and not duke, and so that he could enjoy all the ways that it’s good to be the king. Vaclav, though, forsook the excesses of royal privilege and he saved his people from the evils of war. For this he died. And in truth, he died for his Christian faith.
We also call Saint Vaclav a Passion-Bearer. This is a special title reserved for a very few saints; for those, who just like Jesus Christ, knew when death awaited them at the hands of evil men, and yet they carried on in their mission anyway. Passion-Bearers are not pacifists. Not a few of them have been rulers like Vaclav, men who led armies and knew the heat of battle. A Passion-Bearer, rather, is one who understands that every moment of life is in God’s hands, and who entrusts himself entirely to God, and who shows that trust by accepting suffering and death just as Jesus Christ did, with courage and faith. A Passion-Bearer is one who understands that the self that we are given to live out in this world is ultimately not the real person: that as children of God, we transcend this mortal life. And those who have this realization are ready, at all times, to lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel, that they may find their true life in the Kingdom of God. Saints Vaclav was such a person.
This is my early Christmas gift to you, to get you better acquainted with one of the dearest Christian rulers that has ever lived. I say “better acquainted” because you know him already. You know him, of course, by his Anglicized name. You sing of him every December when you take up the carol of” Good King Wenceslas”, who looked out on the Feast of Stephen, that is, on the evening after Christmas Day. The carol tells the story of a good-hearted king who sees a poor man in need, and goes out on a cold winter night with a single servant to bring food and drink and firewood to one of his subjects. The servant boy can’t stand the cold, and so his master bids him to follow by walking in the prints of his bare feet, and so be warmed by the heat of holiness left behind in each impression in the snow.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing!
Through the prayers of the Holy Martyr Wenceslas, may Christ our Incarnate God have mercy on us and save us. Amen.