SEPTEMBER XXVIII
ST. WENCESLAS, DUKE OF BOHEMIA, MARTYR
From his life, written by John Dubraw, bishop of Olmutz, in Moravia, in the reign of Charles V. See also Æreas Sylvius, Hist. Bohem. l. 2, c. 14, 15, and other historians of that country: with the remakes of Suysken, t. 7, Sept p. 770; Balbinius, in misceil. Bohem. &c.
A. D. 938.
ST. WENCESLAS was son of Uratislas, duke of Bohemia, and of Drahomira, of Lucsko, and grandson of Borivor, the first Christian duke, and the Blessed Ludmilla. His father was a valiant and good prince; but his mother was a pagan, and her heart was not less depraved, as to sentiments of morality, than as to those of religion. This princess was not less cruel than haughty, nor less perfidious than impious. She had two sons, Wenceslas, and Boleslas. Ludmilla, who lived at Prague ever since the death of her husband, obtained, as the greatest of favors, that the education of the elder might be entrusted to her, and she undertook, with the utmost care and application, to form his heart to devotion and the love of God. In this task she was assisted by Paul, her chaplain, a man of great sanctity and prudence, who likewise cultivated the young prince’s mind with the first rudiments of learning. The pious pupil perfectly corresponded with their endeavors, and with the divine grace which rendered him a saint from the cradle. At a convenient age he was sent to a college at Budweis, above sixty miles from Prague, where, under the direction of an excellent master, he made great progress in the sciences, and other exercises suitable to his rank, and much more in all the virtues which compose the character of a Christian and a saint. He was extremely devout, mortified, meek, modest, a great lover of purity, and scrupulously careful in avoiding all occasions in which that virtue could be exposed to the least danger.
He was yet young, when his father dying, his mother Drahomira assumed the title of regent, and seized on the government. Being no longer held in by any restraint, she gave a free loose to her rage against the Christians (which she had concealed whilst her husband lived), and published a severe order for shutting up all the churches, prohibiting the exercise of our holy religion, and forbidding priests and all others who professed it, to teach or instruct children. She repealed all the laws and regulations which Borivor and Uladislas had made in favor of the Christians, removed the Christian magistrates in all the towns in Bohemia, put heathens in their places, and employed only such officers as were blindly devoted to follow the dictates of her passions and tyranny; and these she incited everywhere to oppress the Christians, of whom great numbers were massacred. Ludmilla, sensibly afflicted at these public disorders, and full of concern for the interest of religion, which she and her consort had established with so much difficulty, by strong remonstrances showed Wenceslas the necessity of his taking the reins of the government into his own hands, promising to assist him with her directions and best advice. The young duke obeyed, and the Bohemians testified their approbation of his conduct: but, to prevent all disputes between him and his younger brother, they divided the country between them, assigning to the latter a considerable territory, which retains from him the name of Boleslavia, and is one of the chief circles of Bohemia.
Drahomira, enraged at these steps, secured herself an interest in Boleslas, her younger son, whose heart she had so far perverted, as to taint him with the most execrable idolatry, hatred of the Christian religion, boundless ambition, and implacable cruelty. Wenceslas, on the other hand, pursuant to the impressions of virtue which he had received in his education, was more careful than ever to preserve the innocence of his morals, and acquire every day some new degree of Christian perfection. He directed all his views to the establishment of peace, justice, and religion in his dominions, and, by the advice of Ludmilla, chose able and zealous Christian ministers. After spending the whole day in acts of piety and application to the affairs of state, and of his court, he employed a great part of the night in prayer. Such was his devout veneration for the holy sacrament of the altar, that he thought it a great happiness to sow the corn, gather the grapes, and make the wine with his own hands which were to be made use of at mass. Not content to pray often in the day with singular joy and fervor before the holy sacrament in the church, he usually rose at midnight, and went to pray in the churches, or even in the porches; nor did he fail in this practice in the deepest snows. His austerities in a court seemed to equal those of anchorets in the deserts, and he applied himself with great diligence to all manner of charitable offices, in relieving orphans and widows, helping the poor, accompanying their bodies to the grave, visiting prisons, and redeeming captives. It was his desire to shut himself up in a monastery, had not the necessities of his country and religion fixed him in a public station: however, amidst the distractions of government, he found rest for his soul in God, its centre. The good prince stood in need of this comfort and support amidst the storms with which he was assailed. Drahomira never ceased to conjure up all the furies of hell against him. Looking upon Ludmilla as the first mover of all counsels in favor of the Christian religion, she laid a plot to take away her life. Ludmilla was informed of it, and, without being disturbed, prepared herself for death. With this view she distributed her goods and money among her servants and the poor, confirmed the duke in his good resolutions for maintaining religion, made her confession to her chaplain Paul, and received the holy viaticum. The assassins found her prostrate in prayer before the altar in her domestic chapel, and, seizing on her, strangled her with her own veil. She is honored in Bohemia as a martyr on the 16th of September.
This complicated crime was very sensible to St. Wenceslas; a circumstance which exceedingly aggravated his grief was, that so execrable an action should have been perpetrated by the direction of his mother. But he poured out his complaints to God alone, humbly adoring his judgments and holy providence, and interceding for the conversion of his unnatural mother. She was seconded in her malicious intrigues by a powerful faction. Radislas, prince of Gurima, a neighboring country, despising the saint’s piety, invaded his dominions with a formidable army. Wenceslas, willing to maintain peace, sent him a message, desiring to know what provocation he had given him and declaring that he was ready to accept any terms for an accommodation that were consistent with what he owed to God and his people. Radislas treated this embassy as an effect of cowardice, and insolently answered, that the surrendry of Bohemia was the only condition on which he would hear of peace. Wenceslas, finding himself obliged to appear in arms, marched against the invader. When the two armies were near one another, our saint desired a conference with Radislas, and pressed, that, to spare the blood of so many innocent persons, it was a just expedient to leave the issue of the affair to a single combat between them. Radislas accepted the proposal, imagining himself secure of the victory. The two princes accordingly met at the head of both armies, in order to put an end to the war by this duel. Wenceslas was but slightly armed with a short sword and a target; yet, making the sign of the cross, marched boldly toward his antagonist, like a second David against Goliah. Radislas attempted to throw a javelin at him, but, as the Bohemian historians assure us, saw two angels protecting the saint. Whereupon he threw down his arms, and falling on his knees, begged his pardon, and declared himself at his disposal.
The emperor Otho I. having assembled a general diet at Worms, St. Wenceslas arrived at it late in the day, having been stopped by hearing a high mass on the road. Some of the princes took offence hereat; but the emperor, who had the highest opinion of his sanctity, received him with great honor, would have him sit next his person, and bade him ask whatever he pleased, and it should be granted him. The saint asked an arm of the body of St. Vitus, and a part of the relics of St. Sigismund, king of Burgundy. The emperor readily granted his request; adding, that he conferred on him the regal dignity and title, and granted him the privilege of bearing the imperial eagle on his standard, with an exemption from paying any imperial taxes throughout all his dominions. The good duke thanked his majesty, but excused himself from taking the title of king: which, however, the emperor and princes of the empire from that time always gave him in letters, and on all other occasions. When he had received the above-mentioned relics, he built a church in Prague, in which he deposited them; and caused the body of St. Ludmilla, three years after her death, to be translated into the church of St. George, which had been built by his father in that city. The severity with which the saint checked oppressions, and certain other disorders in the nobility, made some throw themselves into the faction of his unnatural mother, who concerted measures with her other son, Boleslas, to take him off at any rate. St. Wenceslas had made a vow of virginity; but restless ambition is impatient of delays. A son being born to Boleslas, that prince and his mother invited the good duke to favor them with his company at the rejoicings on that occasion. St. Wenceslas went without the least suspicion of treachery, and was received with all imaginable marks of kindness and civility. This they did the better to cover their hellish design. The entertainment was splendid: but nothing could make the saint neglect his usual devotions. At midnight he went to offer his customary prayers in the church. Boleslas, at the instigation of Drahomira, followed him thither, and, when his attendants had wounded him, he despatched him with his own hand, running him through the body with a lance. The martyrdom of the holy duke happened on the 28th of September, in 938.* The emperor Otho marched with an army into Bohemia, to revenge his death: the war continued several years; and, when he had vanquished the Bohemians, he contented himself with the submission of Boleslas. who engaged to recall the banished priests, to restore the Christian religion, and to pay him an annual tribute. Drahomira perished miserably soon after the perpetration of her horrible crime. Boleslas, terrified at the reputation of many miracles wrought at the martyr’s tomb, caused his body to be translated to the church of St. Vitus, at Prague, three years after his death. His son and successor, Boleslas II., surnamed the Pious, was a faithful imitator of his uncle St. Wenceslas, and became one of the greatest princes of his time. A church was erected in honor of St. Wenceslas, in Denmark, in 951, and his name was in great veneration over all the North.
The safety and happiness of government, and of all society among men, is founded upon religion. Without it princes usually become tyrants, and people lawless. He who, with Hobbes, so far degrades human reason as to deny any other difference between virtue and vice, than in the apprehension of men; or who, with the author of the Characteristics, reduces virtue to an ideal beauty and an empty name, is, of all others, the most dangerous enemy to mankind, capable of every mischief: his heart being open to treachery and every crime. The general laws of nations and those of particular states are too weak restraints upon those who, in spite of nature itself, laugh the law of God out of doors. Unless religion bind a man in his conscience, he will be come so far the slave of his passions, as to be ready, with this unnatural mother and brother, to commit every advantageous villany to which he is prompted, whenever he can do it with secresy or impunity. It is safer to live among lions and tigers than among such men. It is not consistent with the goodness and justice of God to have created men without an interior law, and a law enforced by the strongest motives and the highest authority. Nor can his goodness and justice suffer obedience to his law to go unrewarded, or disobedience and contempt to remain unpunished. This consideration alone leads us to the confession of that just providence which reserves in the life to come the recompense of virtue, and chastisement of vice, which faith reveals to us; this is the sacred band of justice and civil society in the present life. Jeroboam, Numa, Mahomet, and Machiavel himself, thought a persuasion of a false religion necessary for government, where they despaired of accommodating a true one to their wicked purposes, being sensible, that without strong inward ties, proclamations will be hung upon walls and posts only to be despised, and the most sacred laws lose their force. A false religion is not only a grievous crime, but also too feeble a tie for men; it is exposed to uncertainties, suspicion, and the detection of its imposture, and is in itself always infinitely defective and pernicious. True religion insures to him who sincerely professes it, comfort, support, and patience, amidst the sharpest trials, security in death itself, and the most happy and glorious issue, when God shall manifest himself the protector and rewarder of his servants. Virtue, here persecuted and oppressed, will shine forth with the brighter lustre at the last day, as the sun breaking out from under a cloud displays its beam with greater brightness.
ST. LIOBA, ABBESS
THIS saint was a great model of Christian perfection to the Church, both of England, her native country, and of Germany. She was descended of an illustrious English-Saxon family, and born among the West-Saxons at Winburn, which name signifies fountain of wine. Ebba, her pious mother, was nearly related to St. Boniface of Mentz, and though she had been long barren and had no prospect of other issue, when Lioba was born, she offered her to God from her birth, and trained her up in a contempt of the world. By her direction our saint was placed young in the great monastery of Winburn, in Dorsetshire, under the care of the holy abbess Tetta, a person still more eminent for her extraordinary prudence and sanctity, than for being sister to a king.* Lioba made great progress in virtue, and took the religious veil. She understood Latin, and made some verses in that language, as appears from her letters to St. Boniface: but she read no books but such as were proper to nourish piety and devotion in her soul. St. Boniface, who had kept up an epistolary correspondence with her, and was perfectly acquainted with her distinguished virtue and abilities, became an earnest suitor to her abbess and bishop, that she might be sent to him, with certain pious companions, in order to settle some sanctuaries and nurseries of religion for persons of their sex in the infant church of Germany. Tetta regretted the loss of so great a treasure, but could not oppose so urgent a demand.
Lioba arriving in Germany, was settled by St. Boniface, with her little colony, in a monastery which he gave her, and which was called Bischofsheim; that is, Bishop’s House. By the prudence and zeal of our saint, this nunnery became in a short time very numerous, and out of it she peopled many other houses which she founded in Germany. She never commanded others anything which she had not first practised herself. Her countenance appeared always angelically cheerful and modest, breathing a heavenly devotion and love. Her time was spent in prayer, and in holy reading and meditation. She knew by heart the divine precepts of the Old and New Testaments, the principal canons of the Church, the holy maxims of the Fathers, and the rules of the monastic life and perfection. By humility, she placed herself beneath all others, and esteemed herself as the last of her community, and washed often the feet of the sisters. The exercise of hospitality and charity to the poor was her delight. Kings and princes respected and honored her, especially Pepin, king of the Franks, and his two sons, Charles or Charlemagne and Carloman. Charlemagne, who reigned alone after the death of his brother, often sent for her to his court at Aix-la-Chapelle, and treated her with the highest veneration. His queen Hildegardis loved her as her own soul, and took her advice in her most weighty concerns. She was very desirous to have her always with her, had it been possible, that she might always enjoy the edification and comfort of her example and instructions. But the holy abbess made all possible haste back to her monastery. Bishops often had conferences with her, and listened to her counsels. St. Boniface, a little before his mission into Friesland and his martyrdom, recommended her in the most earnest manner to St. Lullus, and to his monks at Fulda, entreating them to have care of her with respect and honor, and declaring it his desire, as by his last will, that after her death she should be buried by his bones that both their bodies might wait the resurrection, and be raised together in glory to meet the Lord, and be for ever united in the kingdom of his love. After St. Boniface’s martyrdom, she made frequent visits to the abbey of Fulda, and leaving her four or five sister-companions in a neighboring cell, she was allowed, by a singular privilege, to enter the abbey with two elder sisters, and assist at the divine service and conferences: after which she returned to her companions in the cell; which, when she had continued for a few days, she went back to her own nunnery. When she was grown very old, by the advice of St. Lullus, she settled all the nunneries under her care, and resigning the government, came to reside in a new nunnery at Scornesheim, four miles from Mentz to the south, where she redoubled her fervor in the exercises of holy prayer and penance. Queen Hilde, gardis invited her so earnestly to the court at Aix-la-Chapelle, that she could not refuse to comply: but, after some days, would absolutely return to her solitude. Taking leave of the queen, embracing her more affectionately than usual, and kissing her garment, her forehead, and mouth, she said: “Fare, well, precious part of my soul; may Christ our Creator and Redeemer grant that we may see each other without confusion in the day of judgment.” She died about the year 779, and was interred at Fulda, on the north side of the high altar. Her tomb was honored with miracles; her historian assures us he was himself an eye-witness of several. See her life, carefully written soon after her death, by Ralph of Fulda, in Mabillon, Acta Bened, and l. 1, Rerum Mogunt. See also Bulteau, Hist. Mon. l’Occid t. 4. Perier, t. 7, Sept. p. 748.
ST. EUSTOCHIUM, V.
THIS holy virgin, whose memory is rendered illustrious by the pen of St. Jerom, was daughter of St. Paula, whose admirable life, after her entire conversion to God, this saint faithfully copied. St. Paula, upon the death of her husband Toxotius, retrenched all splendor and magnificence in her household, and devoted herself wholly to God in a life of simplicity, poverty, mortification, and assiduous prayer. Eustochium entered into all the pious views of her mother, and rejoiced to consecrate all the hours which so many misspend in vain amusements, to the exercises of charity and religion; and to see the poor relieved with what other ladies throw away to maintain their idleness, luxury, and pride, converting the blessings of God into their most grievous misfortunes, and the means of salvation and virtue into their most heavy condemnation. Eustochium often visited, and received instructions from St. Marcella, the first of her sex in Rome who embraced an ascetic or retired austere life, for the more perfect exercise of virtue.
Knowing the infinite importance of a good guide in a spiritual life, our devout virgin, about the year 382, put herself under the direction of St. Jerom, and made a solemn vow of virginity. To commend her resolution, and to instruct her in the obligations of that state, he composed his treatise, On Virginity, otherwise called his letter to Eustochium on that subject, toward the latter end of the pontificate of Damasus, about the year 383. In this treatise: having spoken of the excellency of the state of virginity, and of the difficulty of preserving, and the danger of losing the great treasure of purity, he lays down precepts which a virgin is to observe in order to keep herself pure. The first thing he prescribes is sincere humility, and a great fear of losing this virtue. The second is constant watchfulness over the heart and senses against all dangers, rejecting the very first suggestions of evil thoughts, killing the enemy before he gains strength, and crushing the least seeds of temptation. The third is extraordinary temperance in eating and drinking. He forbids her dainty fare, effeminacy, pleasures, and superfluous ornaments. He enjoins her to forbear ever drinking any pure wine which he calls a poison in youth, and throwing oil upon a flame. He would not have fasts carried to excess, and rather commends such as are moderate, but constant; and he enjoins that a person always rise from his meals with an appetite. He recommends solitude, and all Christian virtues, and gives a charge to the virgin, that she never visit those ladies whose dress and discourse have any tincture of the spirit of the world; and adds: “Go very seldom abroad, not even to honor the martyrs: honor them in your chamber.” St. Jerom gives Eustochium useful documents concerning the exercise of assiduous prayer and puts her in mind (besides the hours of Morning, Evening, Tierce, Sext and None, which all know to be consecrated to public prayer) that she ought to rise twice or thrice in the night to pray, and never to omit this duty before and after meals, before going abroad, and after coming in, and on all occasions; and that at every action she ought to make the sign of the cross. This venerable author relates, that when Eustochium was a child, her mother accustomed her to wear only plain ordinary clothes: but that one day her aunt Prætextata put on her rich apparel, and had her hair gracefully curled, according to the custom of young ladies of her quality; that in the night following, Prætextata seemed to see in her sleep a terrible angel, who, with a threatening voice, reproached her for attempting to lay sacrilegious hands on a virgin consecrated to Christ, and to instil vanity into one who was consecrated his spouse.
St. Jerom left Rome in 385, and Eustochium bore her mother company in all her journeys through Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, and settled with her in her monastery at Bethlehem. After the death of St. Paula in 404, Eustochium was chosen abbess in her room. Having St. Jerom for her master, she was learned above her sex, and was well skilled in the Hebrew language. St. Jerom dedicated to her his Comments on Ezechiel and Isaias, and translated the rule of St. Pachomius into Latin, for the use of her nuns. A troop of Pelagian heretics burnt down her monastery in 416, and committed many outrages: of which, St. Eustochium, and her niece, the younger Paula, informed by letter pope Innocent I. who wrote in strong terms to John, bishop of Jerusalem, charging him to put a stop to such violences, adding that otherwise he should be obliged to have recourse to other means to see justice done to those that were injured. St. Eustochium was called to receive the reward which God bestows on the wise virgins about the year 419. Her body was interred near that of her mother St. Paula. See St. Jerom l. de Virgin, et ep. 22, 26, 27.
SAINT EXUPERIUS, BISHOP OF TOULOUSE
HE was born according to the most received opinion, in Aquitain, and raised to the see of Toulouse after the death of St. Sylvius. St. Jerom, who corresponded with him, bestows the highest commendations on him in many places of his work. Above all, he praises his charity for the poor. “To relieve their hunger,” says he, “he suffers it himself, and condemns himself to the severest self-denial, that he may be enabled to administer to their wants. The paleness of his face declares the rigor of his fasts. But his poverty makes him truly rich; so poor is he, as to be forced to carry the body of the Lord in an osier basket, and his blood in a glass vessel. His charity knew no bounds. It sought for objects in the most distant parts, and the solitaries of Egypt felt its beneficial effects.” It was in his time that the Vandals, the Sueves, and Alans spread horrible ravages through Gaul. The tender affection wherewith he flew to the relief of the unhappy sufferers, drew tears of joy from St. Jerom’s eyes. This father dedicated to him his Commentaries on the Prophet Zachary. St. Exuperius was not witness of the taking of Toulouse by the barbarians, God having spared him so poignant an affliction. He was still alive in 409, since St. Paulinus of Nola, who wrote in this year, reckons him among the illustrious bishops who then adorned the Gallican church. Neither the place nor year of his death are known. Pope Innocent addressed to him the decretal so famous in Church history. It is divided into a number of articles relating to Church discipline. St. Exuperius is honored at Toulouse on this day, and the feast of his translation celebrated on the 14th of June. See St. Jerom, Ep. 4, 10, 11, et Præf. in lib. 1, et 2, Comm. in Zach. Catel, Hist. de Languedoc, l. 5, &c.
BUTLER, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) III, 770-777.
SEPTEMBER XXVIII ST. WENCESLAS, DUKE OF BOHEMIA, MARTYR 
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