Duke of Bohemia (now, approximately, the Czech Republic) he was born in 902 and succeeded to the title at the age of 20. A devout Christian, he worked in harmony with the Church to bring religious and educational benefit to his people. He sought contacts with Christians elsewhere, including the neighbouring German Empire, whose political claims he was prepared to recognise. This brought him the hostility of a number of leading non-Christians in his own land, who gathered round Wenceslas’ own brother, Boleslav. Some henchmen carried out the murder of Wenceslas in 929 as he attended Mass, in a scene reminiscent of the death of St. Thomas Becket. In a fit of remorse, Boleslav tried to make amends by having his brother’s remains transferred to a fine tomb in the Prague church of St. Vitus, where they became a centre of pilgrimage. He was being honoured as a saint from at least 985 and shortly afterwards his head appeared on the country’s currency. The famous Christmas carol dates only from the 19th. century and tells of an event not known in Wenceslas’ biography. It is presumably a pious fiction, written to encourage Christian charity.