Vita Wenceslai (Legenda Gumpoldi)
Obedience Above Sacrifice
Wenceslas esteems sacred obedience to God as more pleasing than sacrifice, grounding his devout life in this scriptural truth.
Among the remarkable deeds of those who shone brilliantly through fasting and almsgiving, he was accustomed to attach this outstanding example to his most wholesome habit of modest living: namely, that having more deeply grasped, through the divine hint of this heavenly word, the reverence owed to sacred obedience, he sought to adorn his devout and venerable character all the more carefully — because Scripture teaches that obedience to God is approved more than sacrifice.✦
Fasting Amid Royal Duties
Even when governance interrupts holy fasting, Wenceslas devotes each day to tireless prayer and generous almsgiving.
For when the yearly cycle brought around the appointed time of demanding sacred fasting, the holy young man — though he was often pulled away by the duties of governing the realm — nevertheless spent each single day in tireless prayer and in generous almsgiving to the poor, guiding them with lavish, ready compassion.
Night Vigils and Secret Vintage
Wenceslas slips out at night for barefoot prayer over dangerous terrain and secretly gathers and presses grapes for sacramental wine.
But at night, staying awake in the deepest vigil, gently forgetful of sleep, as soon as the first quiet hush of night fell, he would sprawl out from his gleaming bed, rise secretly from the chamber while everyone else was asleep, quietly wake his attendant, snatch up the little book worn ragged from constant handling, slip out of the palace past the unsuspecting guards, taking only a single young retainer as companion. Over the harsh mountain peaks, past the deadly cliffs and chasms, along the stony or ice-choked paths between towns, he would go barefoot, fulfilling each solemn obligation with continuous recitation of psalms and other prayers. Yet, because he had learned from God that obedience is set above the praise of sacrifice, and savored this truth, during the yearly processions when the vintage season arrived, he would secretly summon a follower of deep faithfulness already known for his word, leap over the vineyard fences at night, and fill the small baskets hanging from either shoulder with heavy, ripe clusters — then return to a storage room far from the palace, one so dear to him he visited it by a praiseworthy kind of theft. Meanwhile, while the doors of his little chamber were carefully secured on all sides with bolted barriers, he would crush grapes in a vessel suited to this small-scale vintage, press out the tender juice of the new wine, and strain it through the clean linen of a cloth bag — working it with the most diligent touch of his chaste hands. Then, with only his single trusted attendant as witness, he would pour it out, store it more privately away, and, when the right moment came, distribute it among his fellow clergy, who had brought offerings for the celebration of the Mass — all under the wondrous communion of divine things.
Exultation in Humble Service
The text breaks into a triptych of exclamations celebrating Wenceslas's chaste faith, praiseworthy obedience, and wondrous princely humility.
O unbreakable bond of faith, forged around a most chaste heart! O most devoted follower of praiseworthy obedience! O the wondrous humility of a prince who did not hesitate to take on the menial tasks of his servants, driven by the impulse of divine love!
Contemplation and the Lord's Body
Wenceslas so reveres the Eucharist that he serves it not only with faith but with the outward labor of a humble worker.
He who, in the lofty contemplation of his mind, held the heavenly mysteries close in his heart, revered and loved with such devotion the revered and saving gift of the Lord's Body and Blood — the heavenly banquet that cleanses the stain of sin — that he served its sacred rite not only with the constancy of faith, but also with the outward labor of a humble worker, toiling and giving generously for the religious life of the priests, as though he himself had been appointed to that very ministry.
Read the original Latin
Inter mira igitur ieiuniorum elemosinis fulgentium acta hoc egregium modestae consuetudini saluberrimo solitus est adnectere exemplo, videlicet ut divini insinuatione effaminis sacrae mentis intuitu altius perspecta, quia obedientiae magis quam sacrificii deum comprobare legitur obsequium, pios ac venerandos mores admodum exornare studuisset. Quoniam redeunte per annuas vices legitimo arduae observatiouis ieiunio, sacer ipse iuvenis, saecularibus quamvis ob regimen negociis haud raro fuerit interceptus, indefessis tamen orationum, larga inter pauperes dispensatione volantium, operibus singulos quam veneranter perduxit dies. Noctibus autem serenissimo instans pervigilio, lenis inmemor soporis, primo quietis nocturnae conticinio, spreto fulgentis stratu cubilis, clam ceteris de thoro surgit, puerum cubicularem tacitus excitat, codicellum manuali frequentia rugosum eripit, palatium nesciis custodibus egressus, comite solum clientulo, aspera montium cacumina, vallum exitialia praecipitia, diverticulorum ac semitarum lappillosa vel glacie horrentia inter civitates itinera, continua psalmorum ceterarumque precum recitacione nudipes singula- satisfecisse sollempniis, sed obedientiae, guam divinitus iam didicit victimis laude praelatam, sapore delectatus, inter annuos processus adveniente vindeniia, clanculum accito nimiae fidelitatis iam dicto sequaci, vinearum septa noctu transiliens; fiscellulas utriusque dorso dependentes gravidis implens racemis, cellulam palatio remotiorem sibique adeo caram furto laudabili revisit. Interim hospitioli foribus repagulorum cauta undique clausura munitis, in vas huic congruum vindemiolae uvas pistillo conterens, expressoque musti tenero liquore, per linei sacculi mundam subtilitatem studiosissima castarum impressione manuum exocolavit, sicque diotae, conscio solum clientulo, infusum, secretiusque repositum, considerata oportunitate, inter clericos conprovinciales cum oblatis, quas missali celebritati providendo ipse coquebat, sub mira divinorum communione distribuit. O indissolubile circa pectus castissimum fidei inviolabilis vinculum! O laudabilis obedientie sectatorem devotissimum! O principis miram humilitatem, servulorum officia divini amoris instinctu subire non pudentem! Qui mentis ardua contemplatione coelestia quae corde tenuit intuitus archana, reverendam ac salutiferam dominici corporis et sanguinis collationem tanto veneratus est ac dilexit obsequio, ut libaminis cultui coelestis, criminum contagia mundantis, non fidei solummodo militasset constantia, verum etiam fontis purgatissiml exteriore instar servuli agrestis labore ac pia largicione sacerdotum religioni sortitus ipse fuisset.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Sam.15.22 — And Samuel said, "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
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