of a friendly exchange of
concessions between St. Wenceslaus and King Henry the Fowler the latter
presented Bohemia's ruler with an arm of St. Vitus. I do not quite
understand how St. Vitus came to hold such high importance in Bohemia.
He was born in Sicily of pagan parents, poor perhaps, possibly honest,
about the beginning of the fourth century. Two Christians, Modestus and
Crescentia, taught young Vitus and converted him without his father's
knowledge. There was nothing unusual in this. Vitus was martyred in
Rome, an experience which might happen to any Christian in those days,
and we hear no more about him until he appears as patron saint of a
church founded about the middle of the ninth century on the Island of
Ruegen, by the monks of Corvey in Saxony. These monks had by some means
or other got hold of the relics of St. Vitus; perhaps they parted with a
bit to King Henry the Fowler, who then handed it on to Wenceslaus. The
Slavonic islanders of Ruegen relapsed into paganism but kept green the
memory of St. Vitus, whom they worshipped as a god.

Whereas St. Wenceslaus secured only an arm of St. Vitus, King Charles
acquired the rest of his body. St. Wenceslaus was, I fear, caught
napping on several occasions. He is not dead, according to popular
tradition, but sleeps inside a mountain, and sleeps soundly too, for he
seems to have missed the resurrection of his people. By way of useful
information I may tell you that the shrine of St. Wenceslaus is
sanctuary for murderers, but I cannot say whether this custom still
obtains under the constitution of the new Czecho-Slovak Republic.

King Charles arranged a great festival when the remains of St. Vitus
reached the cathedral dedicated to him. With his own hands Charles
placed a crown of gold upon the saintly head, or, as one old chronicler
puts it with unexpected humour, upon the head of one or other St. Vitus.
Charles was peculiarly expert in the matter of relics and a zealous
collector, which shows his constant concern for his people's welfare,
not only spiritual but physical as well. So, for instance, did that
pious monarch cause the remains of St. Sigismund to be conveyed to
Prague. St. Sigismund was a good sound sixth-century saint of France who
in the days of Gregory of Tours had frequently been invoked to ward off
fever; his remains would therefore be a useful asset as complement to
the limited knowledge of the art of healing in those days. Not that I
attach much i