Vita Wenceslai (Legenda Gumpoldi)
Mercy Toward the Condemned
Wenceslas, moved by divine mercy, looks with compassion on those condemned to death and orders the gibbets throughout his kingdom torn down.
This young man, filled with God, loving the commandment more perfectly — and dangerously aware that it isn't something to be followed by any mortal standing before him — looked with the gentlest mercy on those marked out for the ruin of a criminal condemnation. But so that the abominable instruments of torture might not stand any longer, he had all the gibbets erected in many places throughout his kingdom for the hanging of men completely torn down, and he refused to allow them to be rebuilt at any later time.
Hospitality and Growth in Learning
Wenceslas welcomes clerics from all over the world with generous charity and, through their sacred instruction, his mind grows marvelously in the capacity for Scripture.
With the most blessed progress of his deeds, piling up the fullness of a goodness now being tested more and more each day and making it more beautiful, he welcomed with eager generosity clerics arriving from any part of the world, receiving them with the welcome relief of whatever they needed, and keeping the love of God toward his neighbor fixed before his eyes, he treated them with reverent charity when they stayed with him, willingly, attentively, and kindly, and — through their frequent sacred instructions — his chaste mind, taught from heaven, cultivated more and more in learning, grew into a marvelous capacity for Scripture.
Charity Toward the Suffering and the Dead
Moved by the distress of all, Wenceslas visits the weak with loving consolation and buries those who died with too little religious care.
Whatever the studies of his teachers had foreshadowed in him, he carried out in honorable deeds; because moved by the distress of all, he visited with loving consolation those who were worn out by weakness, and those trapped by the law of death — often buried with too little religious care by the citizens — he buried with the service of funeral rites.
Fleeing Pagan Feasts for the Heavenly Banquet
Wenceslas refuses to join nobles in pagan sacrifices, hungering instead for the heavenly feast and fleeing the profane company of idolaters.
But among the peoples who were still being guided by their leadership under the ancient law and custom, still unformed in the teaching of faith, when the young man of blessed character saw the nobles themselves gathering more often during the year at the wicked entrances and furious temples of their shrines to pour libations to foreign gods, he hungered for the heavenly feast above every illicit meal — and though often asked to that wicked communion of sacrificial victims, he not only refused the forbidden feasts, but also fled as vigorously as he could from the profane, demon-staining company of their revelers.
Bearing Burdens and Leading Others to the Father's Supper
Troubled by the spiritual error of his people, Wenceslas turns to the apostolic command to bear one another's burdens, gently persuading some and urgently catechizing others to turn toward the true God and the Father's supper of eternal fulfillment.
Yet troubled not a little by this deadly error that had weighed them down, he turned often to the Scripture where the apostle's words prescribe: Bear one another's burdens,* and in this way, making some more flexible toward the true path of the highest good by the gentle persuasion of his words, he never stopped constantly urging them — with the promise of unfading heavenly reward — to turn, with faith, their minds and their desires toward the true and unchanging divine essence, which can neither grow nor diminish, but endures forever. Some, however, less capable of this saving understanding, harder of heart and slower to grasp the truth — following the apostolic instruction — he catechized opportunely and rebuked importunely, marking out the reward for either approach, and striving with all his strength, he eagerly worked to bring as many as he could, both by willing invitation and by urgent pressure, to the Father's supper, abounding in every provision, where, once the hunger for fleeting satisfaction is struck down, the joys of eternal fulfillment are served.
Read the original Latin
Hoc ipse deo plenus iuvenis mandatum perfectius amando, ac periculose à quoquam mortalium praesentiens non sequendum, notatis reis criminosa dampnacione pereundis benignissime pepercit. Verum ne tormentorum nefanda monimenta diutius excrevissent, omnia patibula, hominum suspendiis in eius regni locis quam pluribus erecta, penitus dirui fecit, nec ulterius hoc tempore reparari toleravit. Felicissimo autem actuum provectu, bonitatis iam probandae cumulum magis magisque in dies convenustando exaggerans, quacumque terrarum parte clericos advenientes alacri munificencia sub tocius ne- cessitatis grata relevatione ad se recepit, divinogue amore erga proximum servando sub oculis eius adfixo, reverenda caritate secum eos libentius commanentes curiose benigniterque tractavit, eorumque crebris sacrisque informationibus mens casta coelitus edocta, frequentius in discendo exculta, in miram scripturarum capacitatem prodivit. Quicquid namque docentium studia in eo praesignaverant, honestis actibus ipse complevit; quia omnium angustiae compassus, inbecillitate quosdam lassantes caritativo visitavit solacio, et mortis lege illaqueatos, plerumque neglecta a civibus minus religiosis sepultura, funebris obsequii tumulavit officio. Sed gentibus, ducatu ipsius per legem ac morum consuetudinem vetustam disponendis, rudis adhuc fidei doctrina nutautibus, dum per nefaudas aditorum atque ararum furialium aedes proceres quoque ipsos diis libandum alienis frequentius in anno concursantes beatae indolis iuvenculus conspexisset, ad hanc scelerosam edendis sacrificiorum victimis communionem quamvis saepe rogatus, mensae coelestis convivia prae omnibus esuriens, non tantum epulas refutavit illicitas, verum etiam profana convivarum sordibus daemoniacis inquinatorum quam strenue aufugit consortia. Super his tamen errore pestifero depressis non parum sollicitus, voluta saepius scriptura, qua per apostoli dicta praecipitur:,Alter alterius honera portate,* quosdam, aliquo modo ad verum summi boni tramitem flexibiliores, suavis alloquio persuasionis, ut spretis quibus decepti fuissent idolorum imaginibus, ad verae et inmutabilis, crescere vel minui nescientis, semper manentis, essentiam deitatis, mentes et vota cum fide inclinassent, supernae mercedis bona promittendo inaestimabilia, constantissime adortari non destitit. Quosdam vero minus peritiae huius salutiferae capaces, corde duriores, sensusque vera intellegendi desidiores, iuxta monitum apostolicum oportune cathezizans atque inportune obiurgatus, utriusque modi designans premium, pro viribus conando, quoscumque potuit, tam ultronca quam coacta etiam invitacione, ad patrisfamilias coenam, omnibus copiarum sumptibus babundantem, pulsa fame sacietatis aeternae gaudia subministrantem, coniungere cupidus properavit.
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