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 Saint Adalbert: Millennium of Death Scott 1040 (1997) April 23 marks the feast day of Saint Adalbert of Prague. The Vatican City stamp shown above was issued to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of his death on April 23, 997. The stamp was jointly issued with Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Saint Adalbert of Prague (known in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia by his birth name Vojtěch) was born around the year 956 in Libice nad Cidlinou, Duchy of Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic). Of a noble background, he was well educated and chose to enter the religious life at a young age. He embarked on a decade of study under Adalbert of Magdeburg, that city’s first archbishop. He would take the name "Adalbert" at his confirmation and was ordained a priest in 981. Following the death of Bishop Dietmar of Prague in 982, Adalbert, despite being under canonical age, was chosen to succeed him. Among his positions, Adalbert opposed the slave trade, polygamy and idolatry, which were common among the people. His proposed reforms led to opposition from the secular powers, and he was forced into exile in 988. During this time, he went to Rome and then to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino. In 992, he returned to Prague for a brief three-year term, and his attempts at spreading Christianity there ended in 995. Shortly after his departure, his brothers were murdered in Bohemia. Despite being told to return to his see, it was determined that he could not safely go back, and he embarked on a life of an itinerant missionary. His missionary efforts are reminiscent in scope to those by Saint Boniface (the Apostle of Germany) and Saints Cyril and Methodius (the Apostles of the Southern Slavs). Adalbert ventured through France and Germany in 996, and would continue on to Hungary, Poland and Pomerania (Prussia) in 997. The Baltic peoples he encountered were among the last to be Christianized, having followed native, pantheistic religions. Although he was protected by soldiers, his efforts to convert the population from paganism met with resistance from local priests. He was martyred on April 23, 997, near the present-day town of Primorsk in the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia.  Saint Wenceslaus, Adalbert, Stanislaus and Florian Depicted as the main saints of Poland in 1506 From Codification of Polish Law (Łaski's Statute) From Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain After his death, King Boleslaus I (of Poland) paid a ransom based on the weight of Adalbert’s body in gold. There were squabbles after his death about the possession of his relics. Today both the Saint Vitus Cathedral at Prague and the Cathedral at Gniezno (Poland) claim portions of his relics. Adalbert was declared a saint shortly after his death, in 999, by Pope Sylvester II. He is the patron saint of the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Duchy of Prussia. He is also the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Esztergom in Hungary. Saint Adalbert was portrayed two previous times on Vatican City stamps. He appeared on the 25 L issue of the 1966 Polish Millennium issue, and on the 220 L stamp from the Millennium of the Diocese of Prague release from 1973. 
 Left: St Adalbert, Polish Millennium Issue (Scott 434, 1966) Right: St Adalbert, Millennium of the Diocese of Prague (Scott 544, 1973) REFERENCES: |
