Vita Wenceslai (Legenda Gumpoldi)
The Church Completed and Consecrated
At the blessed duke's urging, craftsmen complete and adorn the church, and the bishop consecrates it in honor of Saint Vitus, where miracles continue to shine forth.
With the bishop's permission, in keeping with the blessed duke's wishes, and the messengers sent back in love, he quickly summons the craftsmen at his urgent command: the work grows hot and the restless labor shines forth; the church is brought to completion with the final touch of perfect adornment, and, decorated with the brilliance of wonderful metals, it is adorned all the more. The bishop already spoken of having been invited, the church is consecrated in honor of the holy martyr Vitus; and in that very place many miracles of those wonders wrought among mortals by divine power gleam right up to the present as signs.
Wenceslaus Longs to Lay Down the Principate
Thirsting for God's justice, Wenceslaus resolves to entrust the principate to his brother, seek apostolic authority in Rome, and embrace the monastic life.
But not yet having filled the depths of his heart thirsting for God's justice, Wenceslaus, that man of inestimable merits, God's chosen one, thought of laying down the earthly fasces of honor—which he knows by experience to be fragile—and of bringing the guidance of the principate under his brother's authority, with spontaneous devotion; and also of renouncing worldly things under the holy apostolic authority of the Lord at Rome's thresholds of the apostles, seeking the grace of prayer, and of being clothed in the monastic habit, and, by that way of life, about to see the farthest limits of temporal life, he longed with the thirst of an inner ardor.
Divine Providence Reserves Greater Struggles
God's generous providence withholds rest from His chosen one, reserving greater struggles so that Wenceslaus may attain even nobler triumphs and heavenly rewards.
But the providence of the most generous Rewarder, which always glorifies itself as worthy with fair recompenses for merits, has deigned to keep greater struggles for this heavenly companion, so that after these noble triumphs he may seize nobler ones and rewards.
Read the original Latin
Dato iuxta beati ducis vota ab episcopo permissu, remissisque caritate nuntiis, artifices celeri iussione convocat: fervet opus, labor inpatiens effulget, aecclesia ad perfecti ornatus extremam manum perducitur, miroque metallorum fulgore decorata exornatur. Invitato iam dicto episcopo, in honorem sancti Viti martiris consecratur; ibidemque plurima miraculorum, di- vina virtute mortalibus gestorum, in praesens usque signa coruscant. Nondum autem sitibundi erga dei iusticiam pectoris adimpleta profunditate, vir meritorum inaestimabilium electus dei Vencezlaus terreni fasces honoris, quos casu novit fragiles, depositurum fraternoque iuri principatus moderamina spontaneo affectu illaturum cogitavit, necnon Romae liminibus apostolorum orationis gratia quaeritandis sub domni apostolici sacra auctoritate saecularibus se renuntiaturum monachicoque habitu vestiendum, eaque conversatione vitae temporalis extrema visuruim, interni ardoris siti anhelavit. Sed largissimi remuneratoris providentia, aequis semper meritorum recompensationibus se dignos glorificante, maiora huic coelestium consorti servare dignata est, certamina, ut post horum nobiles triumphos nobiliora captet et praemia.
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