From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   28 September – St Wenceslaus   
      
    (907-935)   
   King of Bohemia, Martyr – also known as Vaceslav, Vaclav, Wenzel,   
   Wenceslas, Václav.  Patronages – brewers, Bohemia, Czech Republic,   
   Czechoslovakia, Moravia, Prague, Czech Republic, archdiocese and the   
   city.  Attributes – banner, crown, eagle, staff, soldier, horse, armour.   
      
   St Wenceslaus was born around the year 907. His father Duke Wratislaw   
   was a Catholic but his mother Princess Dragomir practiced the native   
   pagan religion. She would later arrange the murders of both Wenceslaus   
   and his grandmother Ludmilla, who is also a canonised saint. During   
   his youth, Wenceslaus received a strong religious education from   
   Ludmilla, in addition to the good example of his father. He maintained   
   a virtuous manner of living while attending college near Prague,   
   making significant progress both academically and spiritually. But   
   with the death of his father Wratislaw, the devout young nobleman   
   faced a spiritual and political crisis.   
      
   His mother Dragomir, who had never accepted the Catholic faith, turned   
   against it entirely. She seized her husband’s death as a chance to   
   destroy the religion his parents had received from Sts Cyril and   
   Methodius, through methods that included purging Catholics from public   
   office, closing churches and preventing all teaching of the faith.   
   Dragomir’s Catholic mother-in-law Ludmilla urged Wenceslaus to seize   
   power from his mother and defend their faith. His attempt to do so   
   resulted in the division of the country into two halves:  one ruled by   
   Wenceslaus, advised by Ludmilla;  the other ruled by Wenceslaus’   
   younger brother Boleslaus, who had absorbed his mother’s hatred of the   
   Church.   
      
   Wenceslaus, who would have preferred to become a monk and not a duke,   
   fortified himself in this struggle through fervent prayer, extreme   
   asceticism, charitable service and a vow of chastity. Meanwhile, his   
   mother carried out a plot to kill Ludmilla, having her strangled in   
   her private chapel. St Ludmilla’s liturgical feast day is 16 September.   
      
   The Bohemian duke also faced the threat of invasion from abroad, when   
   Prince Radislaus of Gurima demanded that Bohemia submit to his rule.   
   When Wenceslaus sought to avoid a war by challenging him in single   
   combat, two angels are said to have appeared, deflecting the javelin   
   thrown at Wenceslaus and immediately inspiring Radislaus to drop to   
   his knees in surrender.   
      
   During his period of rule, Wenceslaus received the relics of several   
   saints from the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, who also conferred on him   
   the title of “King Wenceslaus.” But some noblemen of his own country   
   resented the saintly king’s strict morals and allied themselves with   
   Dragomir and Boleslaus. Wenceslaus’ brother sought to appear as a   
   peacemaker, inviting the king to his realm for a celebration.  When   
   Wenceslaus was praying in a chapel during the visit, Boleslaus’   
   henchmen attacked and wounded him. Boleslaus himself delivered the   
   final blow, killing his brother by running him through with a lance.   
   St Wenceslaus died on 28 September 935.   
      
   Emperor Otto responded to St Wenceslaus’ death by invading Bohemia and   
   making war against Boleslaus for several years. He succeeded in   
   conquering the region and forced Boleslaus to reverse the   
   anti-Catholic measures he and his mother had taken. There is no   
   evidence that Dragomir, who died soon after the murder of St.   
   Wenceslaus, ever repented of killing her family members. Boleslaus,   
   however, came to regret his sin when he learned of the miracles that   
   were taking place at his brother’s tomb. He moved St Wenceslaus’ body   
   to a cathedral for veneration by the faithful.   
      
   St Wenceslas was considered a martyr and a saint immediately after his   
   death, when a cult of Wenceslas grew up in Bohemia and in England.   
   Within a few decades of Wenceslas’ death, four biographies of him were   
   in circulation. These hagiographies had a powerful influence on the   
   High Middle Ages conceptualisation of the rex justus, or “righteous   
   king”, that is, a monarch whose power stems mainly from his great   
   piety, as well as from his princely vigour.   
      
   Referring approvingly to these hagiographies, the chronicler Cosmas of   
   Prague, writing in about the year 1119, states:   
   But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you;  for, as   
   is read in his Passion, no one doubts that, rising every night from   
   his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around   
   to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those   
   in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was   
   considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.   
   Several centuries later the legend was claimed as fact by Pope Pius II.   
      
   The hymn “Svatý Václave” (Saint Wenceslas) or “Saint Wenceslas   
   Chorale” is one of the oldest known Czech hymns in history. Its roots   
   can be found in the 12th century and it still belongs to the most   
   popular religious songs to this day. In 1918, in the beginning of the   
   Czechoslovak state, the song was discussed as one of the possible   
   choices for the national anthem. His feast day is celebrated today   
   while the translation of his relics, which took place in 938, is   
   commemorated on 4 March.   
      
   Since 2000, the feast day of Saint Wenceslas is a public holiday in   
   the Czech Republic, celebrated as the Czech Statehood Day.   
   From Anastpaul 2017   
      
      
   Bible Quote   
   An ancient man rebuke not, but entreat him as a father: young men, as   
   brethren:  Old women, as mothers: young women, as sisters, in all   
   chastity. Honour widows, that are widows indeed.  (1 Tim 5:1-3) DV   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   He who communicates most frequently will be freest from sin, and will   
   make farthest progress in Divine Love.   
   --Saint Alphonsus Liguori   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Good King Wenceslaus   
      
   Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,   
   When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;   
   Brightly shone the moon that night, tho’ the frost was cruel,   
   When a poor man came in sight, gath’ring winter fuel.   
      
   “Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know’st it, telling,   
   Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”   
   “Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;   
   Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”   
      
   “Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:   
   Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”   
   Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)