John of Nepomuk
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John of Nepomuk
was a saint of Bohemia who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. On the basis of this account, John of Nepomuk is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods and drowning.
John of Nepomuk
Martyrdom of St. John Nepomuk by Szymon Czechowicz, National Museum in Warsaw.
The Dead Body of John of Nepomuk on the banks of the Vltava cca 1760 by Franz Xaver Palko.
The prototypical statue of John of Nepomuk at Charles Bridge in Prague, at the site where the saint was thrown into Vltava. Made by Jan Brokoff upon a model by Matthias Rauchmiller in 1683, on the supposed 300th anniversary of the saint's death, which was until the mid-18th century presumed to have happened in 1383. It was the basis for a number of statues of the saint all across the Europe.
Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia
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Wenceslaus IV, also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death and King of Germany from 1376 until he was deposed in 1400. As he belonged to the House of Luxembourg, he was also Duke of Luxembourg from 1383 to 1388.
Detail from the Wenceslas Bible, 1390s
King Wenceslaus depicted in his Bible (the so-called Wenceslas Bible, late 14th century)