Saint Adalbert
Adalbert’s origin and youth
The story of the third Czech saint (after Ludmila and Václav) takes us to Central Bohemia, perhaps to Libice, where the Slavník family resided. According to legends and chronicles, they were a noble and influential family that controlled large parts of Bohemia. According to Kosma, Slavník and his descendants owned almost half of Bohemia - his domain extended to the Mže River in the west, Chýnov, Doudleby and Netolice in the south, Litomyšl in the east and Kłodzko in the northeast. Contemporary historians agree on a much smaller territory - Libice, where the Slavník family resided, Malín, where they minted coins, and probably Kouřim.
It is not known what was the reason for such a strong position of the Slavnik family in the Bohemian Principality. Historians speculate that the Slavs were the original tribal princes of the Zličans (descendants of Radslav, with whom St. Wenceslas was to have fought). Other theories see them as a great family that administered the Central Bohemian territory at the will of the Přemyslids, some theories do not exclude that the Slavník family was a minor branch of the Přemyslids.
The father of the future saint was Slavnik, the first clearly documented Slavnik, who died according to the chronicler Kosmas in 981. Bruno of Querfurt writes of him that “he was noble and mighty, …, his house echoed with numerous household, and was full of silver and gold.” Vojtěch’s mother is called Střezislava in the sources, deceased in 987, from an unknown family - it is speculated that she may have been from the family of the Zličan princes. One of the earliest legends of The Suffering of St. Vojtěch the Martyr calls his mother Adilburg; according to Bruno of Querfurt, she was from “a noble family among the Slavs” and a relative of the Roman king Henry. The same legendist also writes that Slavnik sinned with many women.
Vojtěch had several siblings. The eldest brother goes by the names Soběslav or Soběbor. The other brothers were probably younger than Vojtěch: Spytimír, Pobraslav, Pořej and Čáslav. The sources also record a half-brother on his father’s side, Radim, baptised as Gaudentius. The latter, like him, was dedicated to a spiritual career and became an inseparable companion of his brother. The future Bohemian saint was perhaps born around 953 or 956, perhaps at Libice.
According to legend, Vojtěch was not originally destined for an ecclesiastical career. But as an infant, his belly grew faster than the rest of his body and threatened to die. His parents eventually brought little Vojtěch to the altar of the Virgin Mary and promised him to God. As a child, he received a Catholic education, first at home from Radla, then he was sent to Magdeburg to the local Archbishop Adalbert, where he was educated by Ostrik. The Metropolitan of Magdeburg confirmed the Nightingale in 961; Vojtěch received his Latin name Adalbert, in honour of the Confirmator.
Second Bishop of Prague
Adalbert had been studying for “ten years or more”, returning to the principality in the early 80s with a number of books and a as subdeacon. He begins to work in the circle of the first bishop of Prague, Thietmar, whose successor he becomes in the pre-spring of 982. According to chronicler Kosmas, the election of Adalbert as bishop took place on 9 February 982 at Levý Hradec. Adalbert was presented with a fait accompli by the prince and the nobles, as the 12th century chronicler would have it: ‘Willingly, unwillingly, you will be our bishop and, though unwillingly, you will be appointed bishop of Prague’. The legendist Canaparius, on the other hand, depicts Adalbert as a suitable candidate for bishop because of his “deeds, nobility, wealth and life of dignity.” Adalbert was probably one of the best educated Czech clergymen at the time, and his membership of a prominent Czech family certainly played a role.
Investiture of Adalbert, 19th Century painting
For the investiture, the newly appointed Bishop of Prague went to Verona, where Emperor Ota II was returning from the battle against the Saracens in southern Italy. He was invested on the feast of Peter and Paul, and a few days later (29 June 983) he received his episcopal consecration from his superior, Archbishop Willigis of Mainz. According to the chronicler Cosmas, Adalbert was close to the emperor Otto II. On Easter, which the emperor celebrated in Aachen, Adalbert was even to place a crown on the emperor’s head and celebrate mass - a task that belonged to the archbishop. The Emperor rewarded the Bishop of Prague with ceremonial vestments, which were kept in the cathedral church in the time of Cosmas (early 12th century).
Although Adalbert was a friend of the most powerful people in the world at that time, he encountered difficulties at home in the Bohemian principality, which stemmed from his idealism and which he could not overcome. Adalbert was not satisfied with the state of the Bohemian Church and Bohemian society - “the iniquity of the people, the sinful marriages, the disobedience and negligence of the clergy, the arrogance and intolerable power of the nobles.” The exact reasons are already mentioned by John Kanaparius - polygamy, priestly marriages, Sunday markets and the sale of Christian slaves, the number of which the bishop could not redeem. Sometime between 988 and 989, the Bishop of Prague left his diocese for Rome. Adalbert perhaps wanted to travel to Jerusalem, or to consult with the Pope about his future course of action in Bohemia. Fate, however, led him down the path of monastic contemplation, first entering the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, but eventually landing at Aventine in the monastery of St. Boniface and St. Alexius. Before his departure, he may have put things in order in the diocese of Prague (and perhaps Olomouc as well, which may have fallen under Prague at the time), but even so the shepherd left his flock for three long years.
But a diocese without a bishop was not a state that suited anyone. Prince Boleslaus II began to negotiate with the Archbishop of Mainz and the Pope about the return of Adalbert. The bishop returned sometime during 992, after several concessions from the Bohemian prince. That same year, Prince Boleslav, with the Bohemian nobles, allows Adalbert (who is designated as a monk - monachus) to dissolve illegitimate marriages, establish churches and collect tithes. Another concession, perhaps even a penance of the reigning monarch, was the foundation of the first male monastery in Bohemia, namely in Břevnov; in May 993 this foundation was confirmed by the then Pope John XV. Monks from Adalbert’s previous Roman residence were introduced into the new monastery.
Břevnov Monastery in 1674, source: Břevnov.cz
But even this time the Bohemians did not heed the commands and Christian teachings of their bishop. The situation was about to escalate when the wife of a certain nobleman was allegedly unfaithful with a person of clerical status. The bishop gave her refuge in the Basilica of St. George (St. George’s Monastery). An armed crowd then arrived at the bishop’s court, where they wanted to punish the woman, but also the bishop. Eager for martyrdom, Adalbert resisted them; however, the armed men did not want to kill the bishop, threatening to retaliate against his relatives. The wife was handed over to the persecutors by a certain traitor, killed by her husband, and Adalbert again resigned his episcopal duties without resigning his bishopric, and went again to the monastery of the Aventine hill. In Rome, the twice-escaped bishop met the new emperor, Otto III, who regarded him as his “domestic friend and counsellor”. While older literature sees Vojtech’s second departure in 994, David Kalhous connects it to the slaughter of the Nightingales in the autumn of 995.
The Czech episcopate was again without a bishop. Boleslaus II again sent messengers to Vojtech’s superior, the Archbishop of Mainz. He then appealed to the Pope to send Adalbert back to his duties as Bishop of Prague. All this was to be resolved at the Synod in Rome (which began on 25 May 996), where the Czech side was represented by the prince’s brother Kristian and Adalbert´s teacher Radla. Vojtěch was to return to his diocese only if the Czechs wanted to accept him. This did not happen for fear that he would avenge the death of his brothers. It seems that the Prague court was already playing a different game, the aim of which was to abdicate Vojtěch’s bishopric and elect a new bishop, who would be the brother of the prince, Kristian. However, he suffered an epileptic seizure in Mainz during the consecration and perhaps died shortly afterwards. Thiddag becomes the next bishop of Prague in 998.
Adalbert as Bishop of Prague by Bing Copilot.
At the end of the year 996, Slavnikid Adalbert is finally free of obligations and somewhat unattached. He cannot return home, so he travels to Mainz, where he stayed with the emperor. He then makes a pilgrimage to Tours to the tomb of St. Martin at Fleury Abbey, where the remains of St. Benedict are, and to Paris, where the tomb of St. Dennis was. Later sources also mention his activities in Hungary, he was to confirm St Stephen, this can be placed at the turn of 996/997 or 994.
The third Czech saint
Adalbert then thought about missionary activity, either among the pagan Luticians or the Prussians. After consulting with Emperor Otto III and perhaps Polish duke Boleslaus the Brave, he decided on the second option. The Polish ruler provided him with an armed retinue and ships from Danzig, and Adalbert travelled on with only two men, his half-brother Radim and Bohuš/Benedict. After several counter-attacks, trying to convince the Prussians of the absurdity of paganism, Adalbert was murdered. The Czech chronicles are clear on the date, but not the year. The former Bishop of Prague was supposed to have been killed on Good Friday - 23 April, Kosmas and the Monk of Sázava give the year as 996, the Annals of Prague 997. The Hradiste-Opatovice Chronicles first martyr Adalbert by the Prussians in 994, only to have Vojtěch “martyred on Friday, which …” a few lines later (998).
The martyr’s death is described in legends. Saint Adalbert was first to spend the night in a (sacred) grove and later to go to the Prussian city. Here he was first attacked by stones, whereupon Adalbert began to pray. During his prayers he was beheaded with an axe. His head was impaled on a stake and his body thrown into the river. The saint’s head was to be brought to the Polish ruler Boleslaus by a pilgrim, and the intact body was then ransomed from the pagans. Another version mentions a previous skirmish with pagans and a subsequent attack, when Adalbert was killed with spears and only after death beheaded.
Czech, Polish and Hungarian Saint
The bishop’s body was ransomed from the pagans by the Polish prince Boleslaus the Brave, who brought the saint’s remains to Gniezno. On the basis of this translation, the founding of the Archbishopric of Gniezno, was established, with the saint’s brother Radim - Gaudentius - becoming the first archbishop. If Thietmar of Mersenburg is right, in 1000 Emperor Ota III canonized his friend.
Vojtěch baptizing pagan Prussia, Gniezno door, last quarter of the 12th century. Source: Culture.pl
The archbishopric that was established in Gniezno over the grave of the Czech saint was a thorn in the side and an inspiration to the Přemyslids. In 1039 Prince Břetislav invaded Poland, occupied city and tried to transfer Adalbert´s remains to Prague. Before the relics could be retrieved, however, there had to be a symbolic reconciliation between the bishop and the nation from which he had fled. The Czech army thus fasted and repented for three days. On the third day, his predecessor appeared to the then Bishop Šebíř and demanded an end to sinful behaviour - disrespect for church marriages, an end to polygamy and polyandry. The prince was subsequently to promulgate new laws over the saint’s grave - a ban on taverns and drunkenness, Sunday markets, and burial in unconsecrated ground. Subsequently, the body of St. Adalbert and his brother Gaudentius-Radim was retrieved and transferred to Prague, where the rotunda of St. Vitus was later rebuilt into the Basilica of St. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert. If Břetislav thought that by translating the relics of the Bohemian saint he would gain an archbishopric for Prague, he was terribly miscalculating. The transfer of the body from Gniezno was seen as theft and provoked a war with the Roman king Henry III.
In 1127, news arrived from Gniezno to Prague that the skull of St. Vojtěch had been found there (for quite a long time there were three skulls attributed to Adalbert, besides Prague and Gniezno still in Aachen). Bishop Menhart of Prague responded by restoring the tomb of St. Adalbert in the basilica in 1129, and in 1143 the Prague chapter took advantage of a visit by the papal legate Quido to solemnly “discover” Adalbert´s skull in a tomb in the Prague basilica.
The cult of Adalbert was then a regular part of the political life of princely Bohemia. Before the Battle of Chlumec, the banner of St. Adalbert was taken from the church in Vrbčany and became a battle flag together with the spear of St. Wenceslas. When Vladislav II won the royal crown, he was allowed by Emperor Frederick I to wear crowns on Christmas, Easter and the feasts of St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert . His relics in 1158 in the church of St. Peter in Bohnice, 1165 in Řečany nad Labem and in St. James. After all, the martyr is still one of the country’s patrons - but also the patron saint of Poland and Hungary.
References:
František Dvorník: Zrod střední a východní Evropy. Mezi Byzancí a Římem. Praha 1999.
Petr Charvát: Boleslav II. Sjednotitel českého státu, Praha 2004.
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David Kalhous: Svědectví z první ruky? Nad „pramennou hodnotou" nejstarších vojtěšských legend. Historia Slavorum Occidentis 1(2), 2012, s. 37–58.
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