Each Christmas carolers sing the tune of Good King Wenceslas. However who was he? This can be a story…
Carol
In keeping with the textual content “Good King Wenceslas appeared out for the final time on St. Stephen's Day,” the king and his web page courageous the snowy climate to present alms to a poor peasant. On the way in which, the web page is about to surrender the battle in opposition to the chilly climate, however is allowed to proceed within the footsteps of the king via the deep snow. The tune was printed in 1853 and its highly effective melody and lyrics have made it a favourite ever since, however few know the story behind it.
Author
The tune was written by the Reverend John Mason Neale (1818-1866), who was an Anglican priest. It was named after the Puritan clergyman John Mason (1645-94) from whom it originated. Nonetheless, he was not a Puritan himself, however most popular the Anglo-Catholic custom and was very within the Previous Catholic and Japanese Orthodox traditions. He additionally beloved poetry. Whereas a scholar at Trinity School, Cambridge, he received the Seaton Prize for spiritual poetry many instances. He was ordained in 1842 and spent the final twenty years of his life as warden of Sackville School, a workhouse for poor retired males in East Grinstead, West Sussex, southern England. He translated a lot of hymns and liturgies from Latin and Greek into English. Two songs he translated are nonetheless well-liked at Christmas time – the Creation hymn “Come, Come, Emmanuel”, which he translated from Latin, and “Good King Wenceslas”.
Who was King Wenceslas?
For English audio system, the title Wenceslas sounds distinctly overseas and weird. The tune tells the story of a saint from the tenth century who, regardless of the textual content, was neither king nor named Wenceslaus. Václav's actual title was Václav (about 907-935) and he was a Czech and Duke of Bohemia from the Přemyslov household.
The background to the story is that from 863 the Slavs of Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech Republic) have been transformed to Christianity by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who introduced Christianity to the Slavs from Japanese Europe and translated the Bible into Slavic. The Slavic language was not written down earlier than they usually needed to create an alphabet for it. Cyrillic is known as after Saint Cyril.
Wenceslas was raised as a Christian because of his grandmother Saint Ludmila (ca. 860-921), who was transformed and baptized by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Just like the queen moms of the Bible, she acted as his regent till he was sufficiently old to rule.
Václav had loyal and trustworthy Christian pages referred to as Podevin. They did many charitable works collectively, comforting the sick, the poor, widows and orphans. They have been devoted to defending the homeless and shopping for the liberty of slave kids.
Loss of life
On September 28, 935, Wenceslaus was stabbed to dying, in all probability on the orders of his jealous brother Boleslav. In keeping with custom, his loyal and trustworthy web page Podevin avenged his dying by killing one of many assassins. After his dying, many tales have been talked about or maybe invented about him. He was canonized in 938 and his stays are saved within the St. Wenceslas Chapel of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Fort. As a saint and martyr, hagiographies have been written extolling his repute as a virtuous man and he was often called Václav Dobrý. St. Wenceslas quickly grew to become the patron saint of Bohemia, and September 28 grew to become the feast of St. Wenceslas and a nationwide day for Bohemia.
The title Václav was transliterated as Václav or Václav and Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor from 962 to 973, posthumously raised him to the rank of king. And so the 'Duke Václav the Good' grew to become the 'Good King Václav' in literature.
Writing carols
The story intrigued John Mason Neale, who beloved Japanese European Christian historical past and was involved in serving to the poor as an almsman. Neale was impressed by songs and poems about St. Wenceslas. In 1849, he first printed the story of Wenceslas and his web page (whom he referred to as Otto) in “Acts of Religion: Tales for Kids from Church Historical past”. He then edited a textual content from a sixteenth-century German manuscript about Wenceslas and his web page of Podevins and made them rhyme in English. He set the tune to a Thirteenth-century tune referred to as “Tempus adest floridum” (translated as “The time attracts close to to blossom”), which was truly an Easter hymn.
So though the tune feels like an historical medieval tune, written in archaic English and generally known as “conventional”, it’s truly Victorian. It was first printed in “Carols for Christmas-Tide” printed by Novello & Co in 1853.
At the moment it is without doubt one of the hottest Christmas carols, which unusually has no express biblical references and definitely no references to the Nativity. The connection to Christmas is just that the carol takes place on “Stephen's Day”, which is December 26, the day after Christmas Day. This was the day when folks historically gave packing containers of items to the poor or their servants, which is why it grew to become often called Boxing Day in Britain.
At the moment is Saint Wenceslas
St. Wenceslas grew to become a nationwide Czech hero and legends arose about him. Anybody who has been to Prague has seen the big statue of St. Wenceslas on horseback in Wenceslas Sq. within the middle of Prague, which has stood there since 1913. In numerous locations in Czech historical past, the statue and the sq. have been the main focus of demonstrations for Czech freedom, particularly in 1968 and 1989, and on the foot of the statue are sometimes positioned memorials, wreaths and candles. In 1918, it was an excellent day and the statue of Wenceslas was an excellent place to declare the independence of Czechoslovakia, and so it has been a nationwide vacation within the Czech Republic since 2000.
The message of the carol
The carol ends with a reminder that as Christians we also needs to be type to the poor, echoing Proverbs 19:17 and Matthew 25:31-46: “Subsequently, Christian males, make sure of wealth or rank, you who now bless the poor, you can see blessings.”
