A Small Town Saint
Saint John of Nepomuk, or John Nepomucene as he is sometimes called, is one of the best-known patron saints of the Czech lands. There is no shortage of statues and other artwork depicting him, both within the Czech Republic and further afield. A visitor to the country would have to go to great effort not to encounter a statue or other likeness of this saint during their travels.
He was born in the 1340s in the small town of Pomuk, later renamed Nepomuk, in the Pilsen region of Bohemia. Little is known of his childhood or adolescence. In the 1380s, he studied canon law at the universities of Prague and Padua, receiving his doctorate in canon law in 1387.
John was appointed Vicar General of the Prague Archdiocese by Jan of Jenštejn, Archbishop of Prague from 1379 to 1396, in 1393. Later that same year, he met his death at the orders of King Wenceslas IV.
He was beatified in 1721 and canonised in 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII.
On the Wrong Side of the King
John had the misfortune of serving the Church during the Western Schism, which lasted from 1378 to 1417. This period saw rival papal courts in Rome and Avignon competing for legitimacy, forcing European rulers, nobles and clergy to support one side or the other.
John and the Archbishop of Prague remained loyal to Rome, while Wenceslas IV supported the Avignon papacy. This was only the beginning of friction between the king and the archdiocese.
Another source of conflict centred on the holdings of the wealthy and influential Benedictine Abbey of Kladruby in the Pilsen region. The king wished to gain control of the abbey’s wealth and lands by having it recategorised as a cathedral following the death of its abbot. To achieve this, he ordered that no successor be nominated when the abbot died.
Against the king’s wishes, the archbishop and John persuaded the monks of the abbey to elect a new abbot. John subsequently confirmed the appointment. This move angered the king to the point that he had John imprisoned, tortured and eventually put to death by drowning.
A Tale of Two Deaths
John’s violent death gave rise to several competing traditions, two of which remain the best known today.
The first account is supported by documents from the period, including a formal accusation made against the king by the Archbishop of Prague and the new abbot of Kladruby to Pope Boniface IX in Rome shortly after John’s death.
Of the two well-known accounts, this is generally accepted by historians as the factual version and the one closest to the truth.
A more romanticised account first appeared in 1670. It portrays the saint as the confessor to the king’s second wife, Sophia of Bavaria, and claims he was put to death for refusing to reveal the queen’s confessions. In this version, the king is depicted as a jealous husband who suspected his wife of having an affair.
As this account was not published until nearly 280 years after the saint’s death and contains little contemporary evidence to support it, historians generally regard it as legend rather than fact.
Both accounts do, however, share one notable feature. Shortly after John was drowned in the Vltava River, a group of bright lights was said to have appeared above the spot where his body entered the water.
Because of this shared tradition, the saint’s best-known attribute is a halo of five stars, symbolising the lights said to have appeared above the Vltava following his death.
Other attributes commonly associated with the saint include the clothing of a priest, a crucifix and, in some depictions, a palm branch.
In keeping with the later account, some depictions of the saint also include an angel holding a finger to its lips to symbolise the sanctity of the confessional.
Legacy and Monuments
Saint John of Nepomuk is generally regarded as the patron saint of discretion and protection against slander. His death by drowning has also led to his association with water and protection against floods.
The first church dedicated to the saint was established in Hradec Králové in 1708. A much more famous pilgrimage church was built in his honour at Zelená Hora in 1719. The latter was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994 because of its distinctive Baroque Gothic architecture.
The saint’s tomb can be visited in Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral.
Outside the Czech lands, statues and other monuments dedicated to the saint can be found in Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland and Lithuania.
He is also the patron saint of three municipalities and one province in the Philippines.
Readers interested in learning more about Saint John of Nepomuk can find additional historical information here:
Beyond Prague 