St. Adalbert of Poland (Wojciech)
Written and reaearched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska
St. Wojciech/St. Adalbert was a bishop, martyr, and saint. St Adalbert was born circa 956 in Libicach (Libice) in Bohemia, the son of Prince Slavik (Slavnik)and Strzezyslavia of the nobility.
St Wojciech/Adalbert of Prague was a bishop, martyr, and saint. Adalbert was educated by St. Adalbert of Magdeburg, in Magdeberg, and in 982, he was consecrated by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz, as second bishop of Prague, when Bishop Dytmar died in 982. Adalbert lived as a Benedictine monk in Rome.
Adalbert twice left his diocese to protest against heathen practices, and lived as a Benedictine monk in Rome. In 996, after the murder of his family by the Vrsovecs, he returned to Poland and worked with the mission to East Prussia, where he was murdered by pagan Prussians on April 23, 997 with six spears piercing his body. He was beheaded and his head was placed on a pole. Duke Boleslaw, the Bold, had Adalbert buried in Gniezno Cathedral, where Adalbert had been ordained. In 1000, Emperor Otto III went on a pilgrimage to Adalbert's tomb. In 1039, his relics were transferred to Prague as war booty and buried in St. Vitus's Cathedral. Adalbert is the patron Saint of Bohemia, Prokop, and Vaclav.
His feast day is April 23rd (the day of his martyrdom). In Silesia, St Adalbert's day is regarded as a day for a change in weather: frogs stop croaking for as many days after his feast as they croaked before. Water taken from the wells located by the churches where Adalbert was buried is said to have healing powers.
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