Vita Wenceslai (Legenda Gumpoldi)
Burial and Aftermath
The faithful bury Wenceslas with reverence, but his death soon brings savage persecution upon his household and supporters under Boleslav.
But the few believers who were present reverently placed the sacred body in a sarcophagus, and after the clerics had celebrated the funeral rite, they laid it to rest outside the church in a place near the site of his struggle.12 After Boleslav succeeded to the throne as a leader of extreme depravity, and his savagery raged against the bands of the faithful, he condemned to sudden death not long after the blessed man's murder the clerics and friends, as well as the servants closely joined to his household, while he still enjoyed human life.34
Read the original Latin
Sacrum autem corpus credulorum pauci qui aderant venerabiliter sarcofago includentes, celebrato a clericis funebri obsequio, extra aecclesiam certaminis loco vicinam condiderunt. Succedente post hinc in regnum nimiae peruersitatis duce Bolezlavo, saevitiaque eius in catervas fidelium furente, non multo post beati viri necem, humana dum fruitur vita, clericos et amicos, necnon servicio eius familiariter iunctos, subita mortis sententia damnavit.
Notes
- 1 ↩credulorum: rendered as 'believers' (faithful); the term is rare and may carry the specific sense of 'the believing few' present at the burial.
- 2 ↩certaminis loco: rendered as 'site of his struggle' (or martyrdom), linking the burial place to the arena of Wenceslas's witness.
- 3 ↩humana dum fruitur vita: taken as an ablative absolute ('while he was still enjoying human life'), referring to Boleslav's continued earthly reign despite his spiritual death, rather than to the blessed man.
- 4 ↩servicio eius familiariter iunctos: rendered as 'servants closely joined to his household'; servicio (medieval Latin for servitium) denotes the domestic staff or retinue.
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