September 28—St. Wenceslaus, Martyr

 

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“Good King Wenceslaus looked out/On the Feast of Stephen,/When the snow lay round about/Deep and crisp and even;/Brightly shone the moon that night/Though the frost was cruel,/When a poor man came in sight,/Gathering winter fuel.” So why do we have a Christmas carol in September? The Christmas carol was penned in 1853 to show the piety and devotion that St. Wenceslaus had for the poor. That it was a Christmas carol is due to the setting of December 26 and to the statement of what Christianity is all about, love of God and love of neighbor for the sake of God. 

Wenceslaus was born in 907 near Prague. He was the son of the Duke of Bohemia and his grandmother, St. Ludmilla, became his regent at his father’s death. However, his mother had his grandmother murdered and worked against the Christians in Bohemia. At the age of 18, Christian nobles rebelled against his mother and Wenceslaus took over the government. Nonetheless, he was opposed by his brother, Boleslaus, who had him murdered in 935 after accepting an invitation to celebrate the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian. 

St. Wenceslaus was considered a martyr and saint immediately after his murder. One holy legend about him says, “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.” The last verse of the carol thus states: “Ye who now will bless the poor,/Shall yourselves find blessing.”

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