Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 26 December 2011

Good King Wenceslas


Although his feast day is on September 28th thanks to the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas
not only St Stephen but also St Wenceslas comes to mind today.

The story of J.M.Neale's 1853 carol and its musical accompaniment can be read here.


http://images.arcadja.com/munyaradzi_henry-st__wenceslas~300~10000_20050119_W05700_154.jpg

St Wenceslas and his page on St Stephen's day

A painting by Henry Munyaradzi (b.1931)

Image: arcadja.com

There is a modern online illustrated life of the tenth century Duke of Bohemia who was to become the patron of the monarchy and country here, and there is a modern adaptation of a 10th century Slavonic text biography here.

http://www.hrad.cz/img/u/prazsky-hrad/img-korunovacni-klenoty-koruna.jpg

The Crown of St Wenceslas
It was made for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who was also King of Bohemia

Image: hrad.cz

I have published two previous posts about the fourteenth century crown of St Wenceslas which can be read at The Crown of St Wenceslas.

http://img.radio.cz/pictures/cirkev/svatovaclavska_prilba.jpg

The helmet preserved as that of St Wenceslas

Image: radio.cz

His relics are enshrined in the St Wenceslas chapel in St Vitus cathedral in Prague, and there is more about it here.


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