Many reasons to celebrate

WHEN my wife and I crossed Wenceslas Square in the beautiful city of Prague on St Stephen’s Day, there was no snow on the ground, crisp, even or otherwise.

A light rain was falling and the air was as temperate as it was in West Cork when we arrived home at midnight. Our trip had begun at ten o’clock that morning in Budejovice in Bohemia, a three-hour rail journey to the south.

Wenceslas, a 10th century king of Bohemia later to be canonised, was the paragon of a righteous king, an example to the monarchy of Europe. The carol relates how, upon hearing of a peasant who was without sustenance or comfort at Christmas, he set off to bring him food, wine and fuel for his fire. So harsh was the journey that his servant got lost in a blizzard, but found the king’s footsteps and thus could follow him. Wenceslas’s journey was enshrined in the annals of Christian charity. In the 15th. century, a pope, Pius II, emulated it, walking ten miles barefoot in the snow to bring alms to the poor.