Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Authorities: — A Life written by Christian de Skala, nephew of S. Wenceslas, and son of his murderer Boleslas I. Another Life by Gumboid, B. of Mantua (967-985), written by order of Otto I. Pompous phrases veil the poverty of detail. There are other later Lives, of less value. One by Laurence of Monte Cassino, written in the nth cent. “ Liber conflatus et erroribus scatens," says Pertz. Another Life, written by Charles IV., Emperor, and King of Bohemia. See also, Miklosich, Die altslovenischen Legenden, vom h. Wenzel, inMiklosicb, Slavische Biblioth. Wien, 1857, ii. pp. 270-281; Schuldes, der h. Wenzel dargestellt im Geiste der Wahrheit. Wien, 1848. Palacky, Geschichte von Bobmen. Frag. After the death of Borzivoj of Bohemia, who had introduced the Christian faith into the country, the throne was ascended by his sons Spitihnew I. and Wratislas I. in quick succession. Both were pious princes, who laboured to advance the true religion among their subjects. Spitihnew built the church of S. Mary at Prag, adjoining his residence at the Teyn; and the church of S. Peter on the hill of Budecz. Wratislas erected and endowed the collegiate church of S. George near the castle. This is nearly all that history relates of these two princes. Even the dates of their accession and death cannot be fixed with certainty; but apparently Spitihnew died in 912, and Wratislas in 926. Their mother, the saintly Ludmila, survived both her sons.

Wratislas I. had married Drahomira, daughter of the heathen prince of the Luticians; and by her became the father of two sons, Wenceslas (in old Bohemian Waceslaw, in German Wenzel), and Boleslas, and of four daughters. Duke Wenceslas, who succeeded his father in or about 926, was then nearly eighteen years old; he had been brought up by his gentle, holy grandmother, Ludmila. His mother, Drahomira, a wicked, ambitious woman, at once seized on the regency, and, to clear out of her way the woman whom Bohemia loved and honoured, and who might have disputed with her the right to act as regent, she sent assassins to Teton, whither Ludmila had fled to escape her, and had her strangled with her own veil. The story has been already converted the house where the murder was committed into a church under the invocation of S. Michael. The rule of Drahomira was by no means beneficial to the country, for she stirred up against it an enemy whose power she had not measured. Henry the Fowler, King of Germany and Emperor of the West, had waged bloody wars against the Sclaves on the Lower Elbe — the Obodrites, Lutices, Dalemincians, Redarians, and others; he had subdued them by degrees, and forced them into submission to his imperial sceptre. Whether Drahomira had sent assistance to the Lutices, her countrymen, against the Emperor, cannot be ascertained with certainty; but it is certain that during her reign, the ambassadors of Thankmar, son of Henry I., were maltreated in Bohemia, and this afforded the Emperor an excuse, for which he had been waiting, to invade Bohemia at the head of a powerful army, and reduce it, as he had the country of other Sclavonic tribes. In a.d. 928 he appeared before Prag, In the meantime, Wenceslas, though only twenty years old, had assumed the government independently of his mother, and was then in Prag. He speedily came to terms with the Emperor without bloodshed, engaged to pay him an annual tribute of 500 marks of silver and 120 head of oxen, and took the oath of allegiance to the imperial crown. It was natural that AVenceslas, whose leading desire was to establish Christianity firmly in the land, should conclude this treaty with Henry I. The Bohemians were not thoroughly converted: a large party viewed the change of religion with antipathy, and they were an ever-threatening element of revolt in the realm. By his union with the German Emperor, Wenceslas obtained the support of the empire to advance his scheme, and to cow the malcontents. Nor was the political advantage to Bohemia less conspicuous than the religious one. Bohemia had been long threatened and troubled by the Magyars. By uniting Bohemia to the empire, the Magyars were made the enemies, not of that principality only, but of the whole Germanic empire. Wenceslas saw these advantages so clearly, that he remained true to Henry I. throughout his reign, and never allowed his kinsmen or nobles to shake his fidelity.

His brother, Boleslas, an ambitious, headstrong youth, was an element of discord and danger in the principality. Boleslas had received the district of Bunzlau as his portion* and although he recognised Wenceslas as his sovereign, yet he exercised within this district all the rights which belong to an independent prince. Boleslas was the very opposite to his brother, who even, where severity was necessary, sought to temper it with mercy. Boleslas, on the other hand, treated his own subjects with harshness and rapacity. Drahomira and Boleslas were discontented with their positions of inferiority. They placed themselves on the side of those who viewed the German alliance with dislike, and even plotted against Wenceslas, so that the duke was forced to banish his mother from Bohemia. After a while, convinced, or pretending to be convinced, of her innocence, he received her back into the country with great honour; but he never could heartily forgive her the murder of the guide of his youth, the blessed Ludmila.

Religion with Wenceslas was not, as it had been with Borzivoj, a matter of politics, but it was a passion. He built churches in every city in his realm, adorned and endowed them, and invited priests from all quarters to come to Bohemia. He laid the foundation of the church of S. Vitus in the castle at Prag. “ Here, as among other nations," says the Sclavonic legend, “the divine service was celebrated daily, and God sent many graces down on the duke, so that he understood Latin books as if he were a bishop, and he also read Sclavonic with ease. And not only was he skilled in reading, but he also fulfilled the works of mercy, in that he fed and clad the poor, he protected the widows and children, and purchased the freedom of hapless prisoners, especially priests, and set them at liberty; he showed hospitality to strangers, and was full of tenderness for all, gieat and humble, and cared for the welfare of all." Gallows which had been erected all over the country, from which malefactors hung in chains, he destroyed as objects which tended to brutalize minds instead of deterring from crime; and he also put an end to the torture as a means of enforcing confession.

The nobles of his Court and land were little pleased to.5. Wenceslas. see their prince spend his time in ministering to the necessities of the sick, in lightening the burdens which bruised the shoulders of the poor, in providing for the relief of those whom they had been accustomed to crush by exactions to satisfy their greed. The holy duke was wont to conceal his good deeds as much as possible, by performing them at night Accompanied by one servant, he would go into the fields and vineyards and cut wheat and grapes, therewith to make the wafers and wine for the Holy Sacrifice, or he would go thus to carry relief to the sick and needy. The story is well known of his having carried thus one winter night a faggot of sticks to a poor old man who was suffering from cold. The page complained of the bitterness of the east wind and the depth of the snow. “ Sire, the night is darker now, And the wind blows stronger; Fails my heart, I know not how, I can go no longer.' ' “ Mark my footsteps, good my page; Tread thou in them boldly; Thou shalt find the winter’s rage Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master’s steps he trod, Where the snow lay dinted; Heat was in the very sod Which the saint had printed. The discontent of the pagan party, and those opposed to the German alliance, gradually spread, and Boleslas, ascertaining that it was extensive, resolved to take advantage of it to seize the helm with his own hands. Duke Wenceslas was wont to visit yearly the principal cities of his realm at the dedication festivals of their churches. he came to Altbunzlau, the castle of his brother Boleslas, to be present at the celebration of the feast of SS. Cosmas and Damian, to whom the church there was dedicated. His purpose was to return to Prag immediately after the high mass, but Boleslas so earnestly entreated him to remain for the banquet he had prepared in honour of his presence and of the festival, that Wenceslas consented to do so. In the afternoon a tournament was held in the lists of the castle court, in which the prince took part. During the crash of conflict a private warning that treason was meditated was conveyed to him, but Wenceslas could not, or would not, mistrust his own brother.

On the following morning, Sept. 28th, a.d. 936, Wenceslas betook himself, as usual, to church, when the bells began to chime in the early grey of dawn. Boleslas was at the door. Wenceslas greeted him affectionately, and thanked him for his good hospitality. Boleslas suddenly drew his sword and smote him on the head, saying, “ To-day I give you a warmer hospitality.'' Wenceslas, being the stronger, instantly wrested his sword from him, threw himself upon the would-be fratricide, and cast him on the ground, saying, “ God forgive thee, brother !" But at the cry of Boleslas, three of his servants, who were in the plot, ran up, fell on the duke, who, wounded by the blow of the sword, had staggered back against the church door, and one, named Gnewsa, ran him through the body. The servants of the prince were either murdered or fled. The priests were plundered and maltreated, whilst Boleslas hastened to Prag to seize on the reins of government. The body of S. Wenceslas lay before the church dooi till a priest ventured from his concealment to clothe it. Drahomira came up weeping at the murder of her son, flung herself on his body, and then ordered its removal to the presbytery. Hearing, however, that Boleslas sought her life, she took to flight, and sought refuge in Croatia. S. Wenceslas, Boleslas berued the murder, though he profited by it; he had the corpse of his brother buried, and after three years translated to the church of S. Vitus at Prag, and offered to the church his son Strachkwas, bom at the same time that Wenceslas was murdered, as some atonement for the deed.