Saint Ludmila of Bohemia

Saint Ludmila was the wife of Bořivoj, the first historically documented Duke of Bohemia, and thus also the first documented Bohemian Princess. Sometime in the late 9^th century, her husband visited the court of the Great Moravian Duke Svatopluk and converted to Christianity, allegedly directly from Saint Methodius. It is unknown whether Ludmila travelled to Great Moravia as well, or was baptised later, in her home in Levý Hradec. In either case, she is the first historically documented baptised women in Czech history.

After the death of the relatively young Duke Bořivoj, her two sons ascended the Bohemian throne one after the other. Spytihněv was the first, followed by Vratislav, married Drahomíra, probably a pagan from a tribe of Polabian Slavs. After Vratislav’s death, his son Wenceslas was to succeed the ducal throne, but he was not yet of age. A certain division of power took place – Wenceslas’s grandmother Ludmila took it upon herself to raise her grandson and his mother Drahomíra was in charge of managing the ducal estate and the military company.

Under Ludmila’s custody, Wenceslas was highly educated and strong in faith, owing to which he was later canonised. However, there were conflicts between Drahomíra and Ludmila, allegedly strongly religious in nature and culminating in Ludmila’s decision to go to castle Tetín near Prague. Although Ludmila yielded to Drahomíra and, according to the legend, she even had to ask her to determine the place where she could live and practice her Christian faith, not long after her arrival in 921 she was visited and murdered by hired assassins Tunna and Gommon. According to legends, Ludmila foretold her own death, spiritually prepared for it and then let the two murderers into the castle by herself. Although she allegedly asked to be beheaded, which would spill her blood and allow her to be canonised, she was instead strangled by her own veil. The veil, together with the princess’s crown, later became the main attribute in depictions of Saint Ludmila. Several years later, Duke Wenceslas transported the body of his grandmother Ludmila from Tetín to Prague, which confirmed her sainthood and also made her the first saint in the Přemyslid family. Saint Ludmila is venerated as the first Czech saint, the patron saint of Bohemia and the patron of grandmothers, mothers and Christian nursemaids.