Posted on 04/23/2007 5:57:58 PM PDT by Salvation
Unknown Master, altarpiece painter
The Expulsion of St Adalbert
1470-80 -- Tempera on wood, 87 x 99 cm
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Born 939 of a noble Bohemian family; died 997. He assumed the name of the Archbishop Adalbert (his name had been Wojtech), under whom he studied at Magdeburg. He became Bishop of Prague, whence he was obliged to flee on account of the enmity he had aroused by his efforts to reform the clergy of his diocese. He betook himself to Rome, and when released by Pope John XV from his episcopal obligations, withdrew to a monastery and occupied himself in the most humble duties of the house. Recalled by his people, who received him with great demonstrations of joy, he was nevertheless expelled a second time and returned to Rome. The people of Hungary were just then turning towards Christianity. Adalbert went among them as a missionary, and probably baptized King Geysa and his family, and King Stephen. He afterwards evangelized the Poles, and was made Archbishop of Gnesen. But he again relinquished his see, and set out to preach to the idolatrous inhabitants of what is now the Kingdom of Prussia. Success attended his efforts at first, but his imperious manner in commanding them to abandon paganism irritated them, and at the instigation of one of the pagan priests he was killed. This was in the year 997. His feast is celebrated April 23, and he is called the Apostle of Prussia. Boleslas I, Prince of Poland, is said to have ransomed his body for an equivalent weight of gold. He is thought to be the author of the war-song, "Boga-Rodzica", which the Poles used to sing when going to battle.
(Principal source - Catholic Encyclopedia - 1913 edition)
First Reading: 2 Corinthians 6:4-10
If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who are least esteemed by the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?
To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor evilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.Gospel Reading: John 10: 11-16
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.
![[Saint Adalbert holy card]](http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sta19001.jpg "19kb jpg Polish holy card of Saint Adalbert; artist unknown; if you have information about this image, please email me; please do not write to ask about this image")
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April 22, 2007
St. Adalbert of Prague
(956-97)
Opposition to the Good News of Jesus did not discourage Adalbert, who is now remembered with great honor in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Germany.
Born to a noble family in Bohemia, he received part of his education from St. Adalbert of Magdeburg. At the age of 27 he was chosen as bishop of Prague. Those who resisted his program of clerical reform forced him into exile eight years later. In time the people of Prague requested his return as their bishop. Within a short time, however, he was exiled again after excommunicating those who violated the right of sanctuary by dragging a woman accused of adultery from a church and murdering her. After a short ministry in Hungary, he went to preach the Good News to people living near the Baltic Sea. He and two companions were martyred by pagan priests in that region. Adalbert's body was immediately ransomed and buried in Gniezno cathedral (Poland). In the mid-11th century his body was moved to St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. Quote:
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1000 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF ST ADALBERT
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
1. Veni, Creator Spiritus!
Today we are at the tomb of Saint Adalbert in Gniezno. We are thus at the centre of the Millennium of Adalbert. A month ago I began this journey in honour of Saint Adalbert in Prague and in Libice, in the Diocese of Hradek Králové, whence he came. And today we are in Gniezno, at the place — it can be said — where he ended his earthly pilgrimage. I give thanks to the Triune God that at the end of this Millennium I have been granted the opportunity to pray once again before the relics of Saint Adalbert, which are one of our greatest national treasures.
We are here to follow the spiritual journey of Saint Adalbert, which in a sense begins in the Upper Room. Today's Liturgy leads us precisely to the Upper Room, to which the Apostles returned from the Mount of Olives after Christ's Ascension into heaven. For forty days after the Resurrection he appeared to them and spoke to them about the Kingdom of Heaven. He told them not to leave Jerusalem but to await the promise of the Father: "which, he said, you heard from me. John baptized with water, but before many days... you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:4,8).
The Apostles thus receive the missionary mandate. By virtue of the words of the Risen Lord they must go into all the world to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 28:14-20). But for now they return to the Upper Room and remain in prayer, awaiting the fulfilment of the promise. On the tenth day, the feast of Pentecost, Christ sent them the Holy Spirit, who transformed their hearts. They were made strong and ready to assume the missionary mandate. And so they began the work of evangelization.
The Church continues this work. The successors of the Apostles continue to go forth into all the world to make disciples of all nations. Towards the end of the first millennium, there first set foot on Polish soil the sons of various nations which had already become Christian, especially the nations bordering Poland. Among them a central place belongs to Saint Adalbert, who came to Poland from neighbouring and closely-related Bohemia. He was at the origin, in a certain sense, of the Church's second beginning in the lands of the Piast. The baptism of the nation in 966, at the time of Mieszko I, was confirmed by the blood of the Martyr. And not only this: with him Poland became part of the family of European countries. Before the relics of Saint Adalbert, the Emperor Otto III and Boleslaw the Brave met in the presence of a legate of the Pope. This meeting was of great historical significance — the Congress of Gniezno. Obviously it had political significance, but ecclesial significance as well. At the tomb of Saint Adalbert, the first Polish metropolitan see was announced by Pope Silvester II: Gniezno, to which the episcopal sees of Krakow, Wrocław and Kolobrzeg were joined.
2. The seed which dies bears much fruit (cf. Jn 12:24). These words of the Gospel of John, spoken one day by Christ to the Apostles, are singularly applicable to Adalbert. By his death, he bore the supreme witness. "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (Jn 12:25). Saint Adalbert also bore witness to the apostolic service. For Christ says: "If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honour him" (Jn 12:26). Adalbert followed Christ. He made a long journey which took him from his native Libice to Prague, and from Prague to Rome. Then, after facing resistance from his fellow countrymen in Prague, he left as a missionary for the Pannonian Plain and from there, through the Moravian Gate to Gniezno and the Baltic. His mission in a sense was the crowning point of the evangelization of the lands of the Piast. And this was precisely because Adalbert bore witness to Christ by undergoing a martyr's death. Boleslaw the Brave ransomed the body of the Martyr and had it brought here, to Gniezno.
In him the words of Christ were fulfilled. Above love of earthly life Adalbert had placed love of the Son of God. He followed Christ as a faithful and generous servant, bearing witness to him at the cost of his own life. And the Father honoured him indeed. The People of God surrounded him on earth with the veneration reserved to a saint, in the conviction that a Martyr of Christ in heaven is surrounded with glory by the Father.
"The grain of wheat which dies, bears much fruit" (cf. Jn 12:24). How literally were these words fulfilled in the life and death of Saint Adalbert! His death by martyrdom, mingled with the blood of other Polish martyrs, is at the foundation of the Polish Church and the Polish State itself. The shedding of the blood of Adalbert continues to bear ever fresh spiritual fruit. All Poland, from its origins as a State and throughout the centuries that followed, has continued to draw upon it. The Congress of Gniezno opened to Poland the path of unity with the whole family of the states of Europe. On the threshold of the Second Millennium the Polish nation acquired the right to take part, on a par with other nations, in the formation of a new face of Europe. Saint Adalbert is thus a great patron of our continent, then in the process of unification in the name of Christ. Both by his life and his death, the Holy Martyr laid the foundations of Europe's identity and unity. Many times have I walked in these historic footsteps, at the time of the Millennium of the Baptism of Poland, coming from Krakow to Gniezno with the relics of Saint Stanislaus, and I thank Divine Providence that today I am able to make this journey once more.
We thank you, Saint Adalbert, for having brought us together today here in such great numbers. Among us are distinguished guests. I think first of the Presidents of the countries linked to the person of Vojtech-Adalbert. For their presence here I thank President Kwasniewski of Poland, President Havel of the Czech Republic, President Brazauskas of Lithuania, President Herzog of Germany, President Kovac of the Slovak Republic, President Kuczma of Ukraine, and President Göncz of Hungary.
Your Excellencies: your presence here in Gniezno today has a particular significance for the whole continent of Europe. As was the case a thousand years ago, so too today, such a presence testifies to the desire for peaceful coexistence and the building of a new Europe, united by bonds of solidarity. I ask you kindly to convey my cordial greetings to the nations which you represent.
I express my gratitude also to the Cardinals who have come from the Eternal City, beginning with the Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, and the Cardinals of the countries linked to the figure of Saint Adalbert, led by Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the successor of Saint Adalbert in the episcopal see of Prague. I am pleased that among us are Cardinals from distant parts of the world, from America to Australia. I cordially greet and thank for their presence the Polish Cardinals, with the Cardinal Primate at their head, and the Archbishops and Bishops. I thank also the Orthodox Bishops and the Heads of the Communities of the Reformation, as well as the leaders of other Ecclesial Communities. I address a cordial word of greeting to Archbishop Muszynski, Metropolitan of Gniezno, and to you, dear brothers and sisters, who have come from all over Poland for this meeting.
3. Deeply impressed upon my memory is the meeting in Gniezno in June 1979, when, for the first time, the Pope, a native of Krakow, was able to celebrate the Eucharist on the Hill of Lech, in the presence of the unforgettable Primate of the Millennium, the whole Polish Episcopate and many pilgrims not only from Poland but also from the neighbouring countries. Today, eighteen years later, we should return to that homily in Gniezno, which in a certain sense became the programme of my pontificate. But first of all it was a humble reading of God's plans, linked with the final twenty-five years of our millennium. I said then: Is it not Christ's will, is it not what the Holy Spirit disposes, that this Polish Pope, this Slav Pope, should at this precise moment manifest the spiritual unity of Christian Europe? We know that the Christian unity of Europe is made up of two great traditions, of the West and of the East... Yes, it is Christ's will, it is what the Holy Spirit disposes, that what I am saying should be said in this very place and at this moment in Gniezno" (Homily at the Cathedral of Gniezno, 3 June 1979).
From this place there flowed forth at that time the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. Here reflection on the new evangelization began to take shape in concrete terms. In the meantime great transformations took place, new possibilities arose, other people appeared on the scene. The wall which divided Europe collapsed. Fifty years after the Second World War began, its effects ceased to ravage the face of our continent. A half century of separation ended, for which millions of people living in Central and Eastern Europe had paid a terrible price. And so here, at the tomb of Saint Adalbert, today I give thanks to Almighty God for the great gift of freedom granted to the nations of Europe, and I do so in the words of the Psalmist:
"Then they said among the nations,
'The Lord has done great things for them'.
The Lord has done great things for us;
and we are glad" (Ps 126:2-3).
4. Dear brothers and sisters, after so many years I repeat the same message: a new openness is needed. For we have seen, at times in a very painful way, that the recovery of the right to self-determination and the growth of political and economic freedom is not sufficient to rebuild European unity. How can we not mention here the tragedy of the nations of the former Yugoslavia, the drama experienced by the Albanian people and the enormous burdens felt by all the societies which have regained their freedom and with great effort are liberating themselves from the yoke of the Communist totalitarian system?
Can we not say that after the collapse of one wall, the visible one, another, invisible wall was discovered, one that continues to divide our continent — the wall that exists in people's hearts? It is a wall made out of fear and aggressiveness, of lack of understanding for people of different origins, different colour, different religious convictions; it is the wall of political and economic selfishness, of the weakening of sensitivity to the value of human life and the dignity of every human being. Even the undeniable achievements of recent years in the economic, political and social fields do not hide the fact that this wall exists. It casts its shadow over all of Europe. The goal of the authentic unity of the European continent is still distant. There will be no European unity until it is based on unity of the spirit. This most profound basis of unity was brought to Europe and consolidated down the centuries by Christianity with its Gospel, with its understanding of man and with its contribution to the development of the history of peoples and nations. This does not signify a desire to appropriate history. For the history of Europe is a great river into which many tributaries flow, and the variety of traditions and cultures which shape it is its great treasure. The foundations of the identity of Europe are built on Christianity. And its present lack of spiritual unity arises principally from the crisis of this Christian self-awareness.
5. Brothers and sisters, it was Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday and today and for ever" (cf. Heb 13:8) who revealed to man his dignity! He is the guarantee of this dignity! It was the patrons of Europe — Saint Benedict and Saints Cyril and Methodius — who grafted on to European culture the truth about God and about man. It was the ranks of missionary saints, recalled to us today by Saint Adalbert, Bishop and martyr, who brought to the peoples of Europe the teaching about love of neighbour, even love of enemies — a teaching confirmed by the gift of their lives for the sake of others. This Good News, the Gospel, has sustained our brothers and sisters in Europe over the course of the centuries, down to the present day. This message was repeated by the walls of churches, abbeys, hospitals and universities. It was proclaimed by books, sculpture and painting, by poetry and musical compositions. Upon the Gospel were laid the foundations of Europe's spiritual unity.
From the tomb of Saint Adalbert, then, I ask: are we allowed to reject the law of Christian life, which states that abundant fruit is borne only by those who offer their lives for the love of God and of their brothers and sisters, like a seed cast upon the ground? Here, from this place I repeat the cry which I made at the beginning of my pontificate: Open the doors to Christ! In the name of respect for human rights, in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity, in the name of solidarity among mankind and in the name of love, I cry out: Do not be afraid! Open the doors to Christ! Without Christ it is impossible to understand man. For this reason, the wall which today is raised in people's hearts, the wall which divides Europe, will not be torn down without a return to the Gospel. For without Christ it is impossible to build lasting unity. It cannot be done by separating oneself from the roots from which the countries of Europe have grown, and from the great wealth of the spiritual culture of past centuries. How can a "common house" for all of Europe be built, if it is not built with the bricks of men's consciences, baked in the fire of the Gospel, united by the bond of a fraternal social love, the fruit of the love of God? This was the reality for which Saint Adalbert strove, and for this future he gave his life. He reminds us today that a new society cannot be built without a renewed humanity, which is society's firmest foundation.
6. On the threshold of the third millennium the witness of Saint Adalbert is ever present in the Church and constantly bearing fruit. We need to take up with fresh vigour his work of evangelization. Let us help those who have forgotten Christ and his teaching to discover him anew. This will happen when ranks of faithful witnesses to the Gospel begin once more to traverse our continent; when works of architecture, literature and art show in a convincing way to the people of our time the One who is "the same yesterday and today and for ever"; when in the Church's celebration of the Liturgy people see how beautiful it is to give glory to God; when they discern in our lives a witness of Christian mercy, heroic love and holiness.
Dear brothers and sisters, what an extraordinary hour of history we have been granted to live in! What important tasks Christ has entrusted to us! He is calling each of us to prepare the new springtime of the Church. He wishes the Church — ever the same from the time of the Apostles and of Saint Adalbert — to enter the new millennium full of freshness, overflowing with new life and evangelical zeal. In 1949 the Primate of the Millennium exclaimed: "Here, at the tomb of Saint Adalbert, we will light torches which will proclaim to our land the 'light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people' (Lk 2:32)" (Pastoral Letter upon entering the See). Today we raise this cry anew, imploring the light and fire of the Holy Spirit to kindle our torches and make us heralds of the Gospel to the farthest limits of the earth.
7. Saint Adalbert is always with us. He has remained in Gniezno of the Piast and in the Universal Church, surrounded by the glory of martyrdom. And from the perspective of the Millennium he seems to speak to us today with the words of Saint Paul: "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponent" (Phil 1:27-28). Yes, in one spirit, striving side by side for the faith.
Today we re-read once more, after a thousand years, this testament of Paul and Adalbert. We ask that their words may be fulfilled in our own generation too. For in Christ we have been granted the grace not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake, since we too have sustained the conflict of which Adalbert has left us his witness (cf. Phil 1:29-30).
We entrust ourselves to Saint Adalbert, asking him to intercede for us, as the Church and Europe prepare for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
And we invoke the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and fortitude:
Veni, Creator Spiritus! Amen.
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Robert Kunkel St Adalbert (polish:Wojciech, czech: Vojtech), bishop of Prague was the widely known church authority at the end of tenth century. During his career he became a friend of Polish king, Boleslav (whose mother was Dobrava, Bohemian princess) and Otto the Third, Roman emperor. Bishop Adalbert died as a martyr in 997, during a mission intent on converting pagan Pruthenians, inhabiting terrains located to the east of the mouth of the Vistula, and was buried in Gniezno. Forty years later his body have been taken to Prague as a wartime loot in the course of the war between the related princes of Bohemia and Poland. But this fact is known only from the Bohemian chronicles; the official version of Gniezno is, that the body of the saint had been hidden, and to the Prague was taken the body of another bishop. However it was, till today two cathedrals in two towns – Gniezno and Prague are proud of having the relics of saint martyr. The connection of St Adalbert with Italy is not widely known, however he had been visiting this country wery often, specially the monastery on Aventine. His friend, emperor Otto, after canonisation of Adalbert founded the church in Rome, on Isola Tiburtina, and dedicated it to the new saint. Now that church bears the name of St Bartholomeus, but the medieval well (pozzo) with the figure of bishop Adalbert still remains in the middle of the choir. In the mid-1990s the approaching thousandth anniversary of the martyrdom of St Adalbert (997), his canonisation (999) and a papal visit in Gniezno, made it necessary to propose a permanent arrangement of the priests choir with the mausoleum of the saint. Similarly these anniversaries resulted in Prague with new tombstone of St.Adalbert placed in the cathedral. By coincidence, two academic teachers and architects – Bohumil Fanta from the Faculty of Architecture in Prague and Robert Kunkel from the Faculty of Architecture in Warsaw took part in the program of Romualdo del Bianco Foundation in Florence. Both of them also had to deal with St Adalbert Anniversary. Bohumil Fanta as the designer of the Adalbert slab in Prague and Robert Kunkel as an architect, member of the ecclesiastic-conservatory commission in Gniezno, author of the conception of situating the Gothic tombstone of St Adalbert in the eastern part of the presbytery. The problems of new additions and rearrangements of the medieval cathedrals were discussed in the friendly atmosphere of Paolo del Bianco’s house in Forte dei Marmi. We hope that St Adalbert was also satisfied of the new arrangements of his new tombs (wherever his bones physically are). One of the results of these discussions was the article concerning the Prague project published in Polish quarterly Ochrona Zabytków (The Protection of Monuments).
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| Gniezno One of the most valuable relics of Gothic art in the cathedral of Gniezno – the tomb of St Adalbert with its rich ornaments – has not been preserved to the present times in its original form and original place. The history of the confession was closely associated with the history of destructions and reconstructions of the cathedral itself during a period of over 1000 years. The confession commemorating the place of burial of St Adalbert was founded by the king of Poland, Boleslav the Brave, shortly before the year 1000, when the martyrs tomb have been visited and adorned with gold and silver by the emperor OttoIII. The existing late-Gothic tomb slab in the red marble (see photo), representing the figure of the bishop, was founded by the Archbishop Jakub of Sienno, about 1480. The high level of the representation and its artistic form indicated the autorship of of one of the leading sculptors of that period, namely Wit Stwosz. (see the sculpture of St Roch by this author in the Tribune of SSma Anunziata, Firenze). After 1690, during the construction of new, Baroque mausoleum and the silver sarcophagus of the Saint, the Gothic slab was mounted vertically in one of pillars of the north nave. During the latest rearrangements of the presbytery, the Gothic sarcophage was reassembled again and placed in the eastern part of the presbytery (see plan), what made it accessible to the faithful and tourists.
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| Prague One of the main open questions in the Prague Cathedral is that of the tombstone of St Adalbert, one of the country’s patrons saints. According to the Chronicle of Cosmas, St Adalbert body was brought to Prague in 1039. But after the new, Gothic choir of the cathedral was ready in 1385, his relics were translated to the Gothic tomb, probably made by Peter Parler in 1396. In the late 16th century this tomb was replaced by the late Renaissance chapel By demolishing the Renaissance tomb chapel during the neo-Gothic reconstruction of the western part of the cathedral in the 19th century his architecturally designed last reposing place was destroyed. The new tombstone, designed by Eva and Bohumil Fanta, is situated in the axis of the central nave (see plan) to commemorate the place of the Gothic sarcophagus and consists of a marble slab (see photo) covering the (now empty) grave.
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