Category Archives: Days and Seasons

St. George and the Werewolves

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Icon of St. George killing the dragon from the late 1400s.

St. George is probably best known for killing the dragon. But there are many other legends and customs associated with the celebration of St. George’s Day on April 23 or the night before (St. George’s Eve). One of the most mysterious is that of the Master of the Wolves. On St. George’s Eve a man is wandering in the forest, becomes tired, and climbs into a tree to rest. He falls asleep. When he awakes, he sees the Master of the Wolves below him, who is giving out food to the wolves or werewolves, sometimes sending them in all directions to search for food. The last in line is the Lame Wolf. Since there is no more food, the Master of the Wolves says he can eat the man watching from the tree.

Among part of the southern Slavs (Serbs, Macedonians, Bulgarians) the legends and beliefs about the Master of the Wolves are also connected with numerous commandments, prohibitions and customs associated into the so-called “wolf holidays”. Legends about some type of Master of the Wolves can also be found in written form among the majority of southern and eastern Slavs, partially also among the Poles, and among the Estonians, the Gagauz in Moldavia, in Latvia, Romania and in an incomplete form even in France. His function, as can be established from the legends and beliefs, is to lead the wolves and determine what they may and may not eat. In some versions of the legend, the Master of Wolves is St. George himself! (For more about the Master of Wolves, read here.)

In the book Dracula, by Bram Stoker, evil things are said to occur on St George’s Day, beginning at midnight. The date of St George’s Day presented in the book, 5 May (on the Western, Gregorian calendar), is St George’s Day as observed by the Eastern Orthodox churches of that era:

“Do you know what day it is?” I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again: “Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?” On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: “It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?”(Excerpt from Dracula, 1897)

Good King Wenceslaus and the Apocalypse

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The casket containing the relics of St. Wenceslaus in the chapel of the Prague cathedral. (photo by S. Morris)

Looking across the St. Wenceslaus chapel in the Prague cathedral; note the wooden door taken from the church where St. Wenceslaus was murdered . (photo by S. Morris)

Looking into the chapel of St. Wenceslaus in the Prague Cathedral. (Photo by S. Morris)

The chapel of “Good King Wenceslaus” in the Prague cathedral is a dazzling display of both royal and apocalyptic glory! The good king–perhaps best known for his Christmas carol was actually the duke of Bohemia but he was the functional equivalent of a king–was murdered by his pagan brother Boleslav in AD 935. Wenceslaus (in Czech, his name is “Vaclav”) was murdered by hired killers as he was arriving at a country church for the baptism of his nephew, Boleslav’s son; Boleslav had invited Wenceslaus to be the boy’s godfather as a pretext to get Wenceslaus out into the country so that he could be more easily murdered. Boleslav seized the throne and was a cruel, hedonistic ruler. He died in AD 967, after ruling for more than 30 years. But he was forced by popular opinion to have his brother Wenceslaus’ body brought back to Prague in AD 938 and buried in a small church near the castle. Wenceslaus was acclaimed as a saint.

The famous emperor Charles IV–who built the great Charles Bridge as well as many of the beautiful buildings that we still see in Prague–had a chapel built for the relics of St. Wenceslaus in the new cathedral of St. Vitus that was being built in the 1300s.

The design of the chapel is based on the description of the heavenly Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, commonly known as the Book of Revelation. The chapel is square, just as the heavenly city was described, rather than rectangular. The walls of the chapel are studded with the precious jewels the walls of the heavenly city were said to be built with. There is a small door in one corner which leads to a stairway which leads to a small room in which the crown jewels are kept; this door has seven locks and the seven keys–held by various important officials in the government and cathedral staff–are needed to open it. These seven locks and keys are based on the locks and keys held by seven archangels in the Book of Revelation. The windows of the chapel fill the square room with light just as the Heavenly Jerusalem was said to be filled with light. The massive doors to the chapel are the same doors of the country church that Wenceslaus was entering as he was murdered by his brother.

The chapel of St. Wenceslaus reproduces the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem because the saints are thought to be the first citizens of the New Jerusalem. The first saints said to inhabit the heavenly city are the martyrs–those killed for their faith–and St. Wenceslaus is the first martyr of the Czech region. He was also thought to be the perfect model of a good king who cares for his people more than for himself and the living image of Christ the King who gives up his life so that his people might live. When I was in Prague in early April, I was struck again by the stunning beauty of the entire cathedral and of the chapel of St. Wenceslaus in particular.

Chapel 1

Chapel 2

Chapel 3

Chapel 4

Chapel 5