Saint, one of the first founders of Christianity in Germany, was sprung of a noble family in pagan Slavonia, and raised to the see of Prague, A.D. 983. Having laboured incessantly to reclaim the clergy and laity from their licentious ways, he retired in despair to the monastery of St Alexis at Rome; but from this retreat he was speedily recalled by his flock, who received him with public honours.

Finding little amendment, however, in their course of living, and having learnt that all his kinsmen had been massacred in a church, he resolved to end his days in missionary labours. But while engaged in worship with some converts in Pomerania, a pagan priest thrust a spear through his heart, A.D. 997.