Good King Wenceslas

 Good King Wenceslas

It’s a Christmas song that rarely makes it into hymnals.  

And doesn’t directly sing of Christ.  

But according to multiple sources, it is rooted in the story of a Bohemian Duke, Saint Wenceslaus I.

Duke Wenceslaus was a Christian who firmly believed that his faith should be evident in his deeds.  He would leave his castle at night taking only a page, rather than his usual entourage, and go out seeking those to help.

In the case told in the lyrics he had gone out on a frosty, frigid night through deep snow and saw a poor man fumbling to find wood for a fire.  It is the Feast of Stephen, or December 26th.

Wanting to provide for the cold soul,  he calls for food, drink and pine logs to be brought but as they head out to find him the journey becomes too perilous for the page. 

“Sire, the night is darker now

And the wind blows stronger

Fails my heart, I know not how

I can go no longer.

Mark my footsteps, good my page

Tread thou in them boldly

Thou shall find the winters rage

Freeze thy blood less coldly.”

Its dark and cold and I’m tired.  I can’t go any further.

Watch where I walk, “my page”.

You can trust me.  

And the world’s cold won’t have such an effect.

I can’t hear those words and not think of following in my Savior’s steps.  

“Come, follow me.”

And then the monarch and his assistant find the man and share of their abundance and the song closes with this message echoing the words of the Savior.

“Ye, who now will bless the poor

Shall yourselves find blessing.”

Wenceslas was made a Saint after he was killed as a martyr for his faith by his own brother.  

But his faith was greater than his fear.  And his love of Christ greater than that of power.