Last Updated on September 28, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
There’s good reason to believe that Good King Wenceslas was gay. Yes, the king in the Christmas carol. His feast day is Sept. 28.
Saint Wenceslaus I (907–935) was duke of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). The carol “Good King Wenceslas” is based on a legend about Wenceslaus and his loyal page Podiven. According to the story, it was a bitterly cold night when they went out to give alms to the poor on the Feast of St. Stephen, Dec. 26, a gift-giving day that is also known as Boxing Day. Podiven could not walk any farther on his bare, frozen feet, so Wenceslaus urged him to follow in his footsteps. His footprints in the snow stayed miraculously warm, allowing the pair to continue safely together.
Many details in the Christmas carol are pious fiction, but the king and his page are both grounded in historical truth. The following is based partly on research from Dennis O’Neill, author of “Passionate Holiness
Wenceslaus woke his page at night for charity work
The earliest accounts of Wenceslaus’ life mention his page — but not the woman who supposedly gave birth to his son in more recent versions. An account written in the late 10th or early 11th century describes the young man who was a “worthy page” and “chamber valet” to Wenceslaus.
It says that Wenceslaus used to wake his page in the middle of the night to join him in doing charitable works. The page is described as “a youth from among his valets who, of all his servants, was the most trustworthy in secret matters. The saint himself truly loved him during his lifetime.”
Wenceslaus was murdered in a coup by his brother at the door of a church on Sept. 28 in the year 935. The records say that Podiven “was often overcome by grief, sorrowing for days on end.” The brother also had Podiven killed to stop him from spreading stories of the saintly Wenceslaus. Both Wenceslaus and his beloved Podiven are buried at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. Wenceslaus was considered a saint immediately after his violent and untimely death. Veneration centered at first in Bohemia and in England. He is honored in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
Wenceslaus in LGBTQ-affirming art and performance
A queer retelling of their story is presented in a surprising new format as a puppet show by Brett Crandall. His “Good King Wenceslas” premiered in December 2022 in Garden City, Kansas. It was performed at public libraries in Hays and Dodge City to celebrate Wenceslas’ feast day in 2023. Crandall plays multiple roles as puppeteer, actor, writer, and producer of the single-puppeteer adaptation. Crandall is a Kansas puppeteer who has faced church-sponsored backlash for his LGBTQ-inclusive puppet shows. They include “The Trial of David: Queer, Biblical, Puppet Play” about the love between David and Jonathan.
Puppeteer Brett Crandall as Podiven touches the arm of his beloved king in a queer retelling of the King Wenceslas story.
The icon at the top of this post was painted by Colorado artist Lewis Williams of the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO). He studied with master iconographer Robert Lentz and has made social justice a theme of his icons. It is dedicated to the memory of Father Larry Craig, a Chicago priest known for service to the Latino community and prison ministry. Before his death in 2006, Father Craig used to stand outside the Cook County Jail at night, giving sandwiches and bus passes to surprised inmates who had just been released. He served as the model for Podiven’s face in this icon. Prints are available at Trinity Stores.
May these facts warm your heart whenever you hear or sing the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas.”
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To read this post in Spanish / en español, go to Santos Queer:
San Venceslao I de Bohemia y Podiven: Venceslao, el buen rey (gay?)
To read this post in French / en français, visit Pays de Zabulon Un blog qui parle d’amour:
Saint Wenceslas et son ami
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Top image credit:
“St. Wenceslaus and Podiven” by Lewis Williams, SFO. © www.trinitystores.com.
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in September 2017, expanded with new material over time, and was most recently updated on Sept. 28, 2023.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
So the only indication you can offer that they were gay was the fact that Podivan cried a lot after Wenceslas was murdered? So if a son cries a lot after his father is murdered, they must have been in an incestuous relationship? This type of reasoning would never be accepted for any other claim about historical people.
Today, “on the Feast of Stephen”, let’s honor good King Wenceslas and his good Page Podiven. That some people object to considering the idea that the pair might have been lovers, demonstrates that some still regard same-sex loving as somehow sinful or inferior or an “anomaly”. Similarly, some still believe that sexual expression somehow brings any love down to a less exalted or admirable level — i.e., that sexual expression is itself degrading. All these are among the “tiresome attitudes” we are still contending with. In any case, the message of the carol “Good King Wenceslas” is itself the very gospel as taught BY Jesus (not the other gospel ABOUT Jesus): Regardless of “… rank or wealth possessing, Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.” The gospel of Jesus was the arrival of “the Kingdom” — a reign of justice and mercy, of “truth and reconciliation” and the forgiveness of debts… of peace and love, of the dignity and divinity of every person. Happy & Blessed Twelve Days of Christmas!
Given that for much of history the ONLY acceptable way for gay people to show affection for each other in the open was through friendship we have to consider friendship as a part of queer history. No, that doesn’t mean that all strong friendships were between gay people, of course not, but it is a right for gay people to consider these loving friendships as queer history. Queer is also a broad term, if you are straight but love your same-sex best friend more than your husband/wife you may be aromantic or bi-romantic but not bisexual. These identities can also fairly be said to be part of the broader spectrum of LGBTQ+ experiences.
Few people in or outside the LGBTQ+ community think that you cannot share a house with someone or be friends with someone of the same sex, this is just a strawman, you can do both and not be gay.
Why is it that every single time, there is an historical account of a close relationship between two people, someone inevitability insists they must be gay. From King David and Jonathan to Christ and St. John the Apostle to Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok. Are the gays so desperate to legitimatize homosexual behavior that they try to snag some of the most illustrious figures and claim them as one of their own? People of the same gender can’t even share an apartment or a house anymore, without society jumping to conclusions. It’s so tiresome.
The LGBTQ community does have a great need for positive spiritual role models, so we search for them everywhere, including in the lives of the illustrious figures that you named. Just because they had a homosexual orientation does not mean necessarily that they were sexually active. That assumption is tiresome too.
Carol, the same reason you denounce that same historical account as not being an indication of accepted homosexuality. It makes you feel better about considering yourself the chosen ones and not those homosexual heathens. How could God lift up something you detest? “Snagging some of the most illustrious figures and claiming them as their own”? Like you do with your Christianity. Homosexuality is a naturally occurring anomaly in nature. You can deny what is real all you want, your ignorance will never make it false.
Because they were sexually involved. it’s no secret, nor rocket science. what is truly tiresome is the apparent threat that same-sex has for many people. and so many insist on holding the realm of spirituality pure from such stain. Tiresome and unacceptable. A spirituality which holds same-sex love as a part of its source will of course pose a threat to more “puritan” traditions. that is what could be usefully examined and discussed; but not as an either/or situation. that it cannot be.
Very good points, and the responses to you are an additional proof that these guys have no argument to make. A servant crying for his murdered king would not be seen as evidence of romance if the servant had been a woman, so why is it seen as evidence of homosexual attraction if the servant is male?
Dear Carol,
The primary reason we share the truth about the romantic relationship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok is because it’s an extremely well document fact. As queer people we must literally fight every single day against people like you straight-washing our existence out of history. There are THOUSANDS of letters between these two women that leave no doubt as to the nature of their relationship. Go read them for yourself in the FDR library.