Ludmilla, St.
LUDMILLA, ST.
Martyr, patroness of Bohemia; b. c. 860; d. Tetin, West Bohemia, Sept. 15, 921. She was a Bohemian princess, and the wife of Bořiwoj (d. c. 894), first Christian duke of Bohemia. She and her husband were baptized at Velehrad by St. Methodius (see cyril and methodius) in 871. A Christian of great piety and zeal, she became one of the chief promoters of Christianity in Bohemia and was violently opposed by the adherents of national paganism. When her grandson, St. wenceslaus, ascended the throne (920) the struggle became particularly acute. He had been raised a Christian by Ludmilla, but since he was still a minor in 920, the regency was exercised by his mother Drahomira, a forceful and ambitious woman in sympathy with the pagan reaction. In her anxiety to eliminate the influence of Ludmilla on the young Wenceslaus, Drahomira instigated Ludmilla's murder at Tetin, where she was living in retirement. Ludmilla was buried at Tetin and later translated to St. George's Church in Prague.
Feast: Sept. 16.
Bibliography: Passio s. Ludmillae, ed. o. holder–egger, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 15.1:572–574. Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis 2:5026–31. j. pekar, Die Wenzels– und Ludmilla–Legenden und die Echtheit Christians (Prague 1906). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints 3:570.
[o. p. sherbowitz–wetzor]