Prussia and Poland
The patron saint of Prussia and Poland, whose feast day is 23 April. Adalbert (c. 956-997) was born to a noble Bohemian family and baptized Voytech. At his confirmation, he took the name Adalbert, after his teacher of the same name in Magdeburg. When his teacher died in 981, Adalbert returned to Prague and was consecrated there in 982, becoming the first native bishop of the city. However, Adalbert encountered stiff opposition to his attempts to convert others to Christianity, and in 990 he withdrew from Prague to Rome, where he joined the Benedictine abbey of Saints Boniface and Alexis. Duke Boleslaus (Boleslaw I, “the Brave”) of Poland petitioned Pope John XV (pope 985-996) for the return of Adalbert to Prague, and shortly thereafter Adalbert was sent back under papal decree.
Conditions appeared to have improved, and Adalbert founded the Benedictine abbey at Brevnov. The peace, however, was shortlived, and the populace once again grew hostile to him and his teachings when he attempted to give sanctuary to a woman who had been accused of adultery. The horde dragged the woman out of his church and summarily executed her, whereupon Adalbert promptly excommunicated everyone involved. Once again he was obliged to flee to Rome, from where he was yet again ordered to return, this time by Pope Gregory V (pope 996-999). However, in his absence,
Several of his family had been murdered, so it was decided, upon the suggestion of Duke Boleslaus, that Adalbert should undertake a mission to the pagan Prussians in Pomerania.
Adalbert went on to evangelize Hungary and possibly Prussia and Poland as well but was murdered in 997, along with his two companions Benedict and Gaudentius, by Prussians who suspected them of being Polish spies.
Adalbert’s body was thrown into the water near Konigsberg (modern Kaliningrad, a Russian city that is separated from the rest of the country by Lithuania) but was later recovered after it washed ashore in Poland. He was enshrined at Griezno, but his relics were forcibly repatriated to Prague in 1039. Saint Adalbert is usually depicted with a club and lances—the weapons used to murder him—and often with a two-headed cross.
See also: Bohemia; Hungary; Poland; Prussia
World History
