ADALBERT OF PRAGUE, Saint, Martyr. - Of Czech nationality, he was called Vojtěch; among the Slavic peoples he is known and venerated under this name. Educated at Magdeburg, at his confirmation he was given by Archbishop Adalbert his own name, under which he entered history and the cult. He was elected in 982 bishop of Prague, but some time later he withdrew to Rome, to the Aventine, into the monastery of S. Alessio (988). Sent back in 989 to his see, he founded there, according to ancient tradition, the monastery of Břevnov, near Prague. In 994-95 he made a missionary journey through Hungary, then settled again in Rome (996). There he entered the favor of Emperor Otto III, with whom he returned to his homeland. There he found all his relatives murdered; with a heart torn with grief, he went to Boleslaus the Brave, duke of Poland, to devote himself to the conversion of the Prussians. But on 23 Apr. 997, while he was preaching, he was killed near Tenkitten by a horde of pagans. He was buried at Gniezno.
He immediately received the cult of a martyr. Otto III, then in Rome, built a church in his honor on the Tiber Island (today S. Bartolomeo) and in 1000 went on pilgrimage to Gniezno, where he erected an archbishopric. In 1039 the Czechs carried off the body, depositing it in the cathedral of Prague, where the relics were rediscovered in 1880. His feast falls on 23 Apr.