Wednesday, September 16, 2026

It is the 16th of September 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

It’s not just a rhapsody or the domain of Edie Brickell or a Puccini opera about the anti-bourgeoisie- the Bohemians are an ancient Christian people converted in the 9th century whose legacy includes Good King Wenceslas and Jan Hus and the Hussites.

 

The story begins, as so many do in early Eastern European Christianity, with the saints Cyril and Methodius. These brothers, who are considered “equal-to-the-apostles” in the Orthodox Church, brought the Glagolitic alphabet for writing out the Slavic language.

 

Sometime in the early 880s, they managed to convert the Duke of Bohemia, Borivoj, and his wife, Ludmilla. The two would build the first Christian church near Prague. However, the association with Christianity and the neighboring Moravians was too much for the Bohemian aristocrats, who used that connection to force Borivoj and Ludmilla into exile.

 

Eventually they would return and have two male heirs before Borivoj died around 888, leaving Ludmilla as a widow. The sons Spytihněv and Vratislav ruled in succession. Vratislav and his wife, Drahomira, welcomed their son, Wenceslas, before Vratislav’s death around 921. Wenceslas, still a young boy, would need a regent. His mother, Drahomira, and his grandmother, the widowed Ludmilla, would split the duties.

 

The story of Drahomira would certainly be colored by Medieval hagiography, but here’s how it is traditionally told.

 

Drahomira would rule while Ludmilla would be responsible for Wenceslas’ education and upbringing. Drahomira had nominally accepted the faith of her husband, but her pagan roots bled through. She is said to have grown jealous of her mother-in-law’s influence on Wenceslas and in 921 conspired with two noblemen- Tunna and Gommon. The noblemen broke into the residence of Ludmilla on the 15th of September 921 (her feast day is today, the 16th)- they are believed to have taken the former ruler's veil and choked her to death. Wenceslas learned of his mother’s treachery and had her deposed and took the Bohemian throne himself. Having been raised in the faith by his grandmother, he had her relics taken to St. George’s Basilica in Prague. She would be venerated as one of the earliest Slavic saints, and of course, her grandson would “look out on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even,” but more importantly, help cement the faith for generations of Bohemians.

 

Ludmilla, for her influence, would be named a saint and the patron saint of widows, converts, duchesses and those with difficult in-laws.

 

But there’s more. St. Ludmilla would become an unlikely 19th- and 20th-century hero to the Czech people through the composer Dvorak. In 1886, he was invited to London for the Leeds festival. They wanted a biblical oratorio, but Dvorak went with a libretto about Ludmilla and her conversion and the mass baptisms of the Bohemian people. A Czech libretto about a medieval duchess was an unlikely hit- and at first it received terrible reviews.

 

But it would be transformed into a kind of totem for the Czech’s after the Communist seizure of power after World War II. In 1948, it was performed at the Prague Castle with the Czech Philharmonic under Rafael Kubelík. Kubelík would then go into exile. Dvořák could not be easily “banned” by authorities, and his origin story of the Bohemians and their literal baptism sat uneasily with officials.

 

In 1987, during late Communist normalization, two years before the Velvet Revolution and four years before the Soviet Union dissolved, with Czech nationalism a driving force, the Oratorio for the great patron saint and martyr was performed by the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonic Choir under the direction of Vaclav Neumann. The national-historical and Christian oratorio with its use of “Lord Have Mercy on Us” in Czech could serve as a kind of protest.

 

St. Ludmilla, for centuries a symbol of Bohemian and Czech Christianity- the patron saint of Bohemia and Grandmother to Wenceslas, martyr and saint is remembered on this, the 16th of September.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Mark 11:

20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 16th of September 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows two bohemians are helpful sound engineers… Czech 1, Czech 2… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man with a shout-out to Walt and Sherry- decidedly non-difficult in-laws. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.