12 Facts About “Good King Wenceslas”

Posted on by M.E. Bond Posted in OriginsTagged , ,

“Good King Wenceslas” is a popular Christmas carol, but I bet you don’t know much about the man behind the song. Here are 12 fun facts.

  1. The subject of the carol is Wenceslaus I, a 10th-century Duke of Bohemia, who was posthumously made both king and saint.

2. Wenceslaus’ mother was a pagan and his father a Christian. After his father died in battle his mother reigned as regent. When Wenceslaus came of age he exiled her.

3. Wenceslaus built churches and was known for helping the poor, widows, and orphans.

4. He was also known as Vaclac the Good.

5. Wenceslaus was only in his 20s when he was murdered by his brother Boleslaus the Cruel (or Boleslaw the Bad) on September 28, which became his saint’s day.

6. Immediately after his death he was revered as a saint and biographies were soon written.

7. Wenceslaus is the only Czech saint whose name day appears on the worldwide calendar of the Roman Catholic Church.

8. Legend has it that if the Czech Republic is in trouble the statue of St. Wenceslaus will come to life and raise an army to save the country.

9. The words of the carol “Good King Wenceslas” were written by Anglican priest John Mason Neale in 1853.

10. The tune is a 13th-century hymn called “Tempus adest floridum” (“The time is near for Flowering”), first published in the 1582 Finnish ecclesiastical song collection Piae Cantiones.

11. The Beatles recorded several renditions of “Good King Wenceslas” in 1963.

12. Since 2000 Wenceslaus’ saint’s day has been a national holiday in Czech Republic.

Now if you’re hankering to listen to the carol, this article calls the Skydiggers’ version the best recent recording.

Sources

Merry Christmas! (If you’re interested, here’s another post about a famous carol.)

3 thoughts on “12 Facts About “Good King Wenceslas””

  1. Reply
    bitaboutbritain says:

    Did you know that Neale wrote the carol in Sackville College, an almshouse founded in 1607 in East Grinstead, Sussex. He was warden there. The buildings are still there and still in use. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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