Saintly King Wenceslas – Patron of Dysfunctional families! (or should be!)

Today is the feast day of King Wenceslaus, Duke of Bohemia from 924-929. This is the Good King  Wenceslaus from the famous Christmas Carol!

James Melzer via Flickr, licensed cc.

Good King Wenceslaus:

King Wenceslaus 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”

Read more about the good saint at Catholic culture.
Lest we forget, today is a good day to sing this hymn!

When you think YOUR family is bad, you can always remember King Wenceslaus and then count your blessings.  

St. Wenceslaus was born in 907 near Prague. His father’s side was Christian, but his mother, Drahomira, was a Pagan. After his father’s death, Drahomira became the regent and greatly enjoyed her position, especially the part about persecuting Christians.

Wenceslaus was raised in the faith by his devoted grandmother, St. Ludmilla, and when he became 18, Wenceslaus took over his kingdom and stopped the official persecution of Christian, although the bloodshed continued.

In the end, Drahmira had Ludmilla murdered, and shortly thereafter Wenceslaus was attacked and killed by his brother while he was on the way to mass. This was the epitome of family dysfunction.

Christmas sheet music to download and play.

Lessons from St. Wenceslaus

St. Ludmilla was essentially a homeschooling grandma! She taught Wenceslaus Latin and gave him an extensive education to make him a good ruler.

How to celebrate:

Today is a good day to review the St. Wenceslaus hymn and read the story of St. Stephen as well.

Traditional potato pancakes would be a good fall treat for today.