ADALBERTO of PRAGUE, saint, martyr. — Of Czech nationality, he was called Voitèch; among the Slavic peoples he is known and venerated under this name. Educated at Magdeburg, at his confirmation the archbishop Adalberto imposed his own name upon him, under which he entered history and the cult. He was elected bishop of Prague in 982, but some time later withdrew to Rome, to the Aventine, in the monastery of St. Alessio (988). Sent back to his see in 989, there, according to ancient tradition, he founded the monastery of Břevnov, near Prague. In 994–95 he undertook a missionary journey through Hungary, subsequently settling once again in Rome (996). There he won the favor of the emperor Ottone III, with whom he returned to his homeland. He found all his relatives murdered; with a heart torn by grief, he went to Boleslao Chrobry, duke of Poland, in order to devote himself to the conversion of the Prussians. But on 23 April 997, while preaching, he was killed near Tenkitten by a horde of pagans. He was buried at Gniezno.
He immediately received a martyr’s cult. Ottone 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 established an archbishopric. In 1039 the Czechs removed the body and deposited it in the cathedral of Prague, where the relics were rediscovered in 1880. His feast is celebrated on 23 April.