St. Ludmila

St. Ludmila was born about 860 and became duchess of Bohemia as the wife of Bořivoj, the first Christian duke of the Czechs, who, tradition holds, was baptized together with her by St. Methodius, the apostle of the Slavs. As one of the first Christian rulers of her land, she labored to spread the still-young faith among a largely pagan people and to found churches.

Her greatest legacy was the Christian upbringing of her grandson, the future St. Wenceslaus, whom she taught the faith and raised in piety, preparing the saintly duke who would rule Bohemia. But this drew upon her the enmity of her daughter-in-law Drahomíra, who, in the struggle for influence over the young prince and the direction of the realm, had Ludmila killed. She was strangled at her castle of Tetín in 921 and is venerated as a martyr and, with Wenceslaus, a patron of Bohemia. Her memory is kept on 16 September.