#350 Czech Republic...Thanks Jiri!

This FDC was issued in 1993 commemorating 600th Death Anniv.of St.John Nepomuk,Patron Saint of Czechs (1345-1393),who was murdered during the bitter conflict of church and state that plagued Bohemia in the latter 14th century.

In 1383 John began studies at Padua, Italy, where he became a doctor of canon law and subsequently received several church offices. In 1390 he was made vicar general for the archbishop of Prague. In 1393 the archbishop, with John's support, excommunicated one of the favourites of King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia and thwarted the king's ambition to make a new bishopric out of the province of Prague. John was arrested as the archbishop's chief agent. Wenceslas personally tortured him with fire, after which he reconsidered and released him on an oath of secrecy regarding his treatment. John, however, was dying, and to conceal the evidence Wenceslas had him gagged, shoved into a goatskin, and cast into the Vltava River. Bohemian Catholics later regarded him as a martyr.

The left 7k stamp was issued in 1997 commemorating 1000th Death Anniv.of St.Adalbert (956-997),who is the first bishop of Prague to be of Czech origin.

Descended from the Slavník princes of Bohemia, he was trained in theology at Magdeburg (Germany). At his confirmation he received his name from St. Adalbert, first archbishop of Magdeburg. As bishop (elected 982), Adalbert promoted the political aims of Boleslav II, prince of Bohemia, by extending the influence of the church beyond the borders of the Czech kingdom. He tried to improve the standards of church life but found little understanding among his countrymen for his lofty ideals.

Critical of the superficial attitude to Christianity prevalent in the country, Adalbert departed in 988 with the intention of leading the ascetic life of a monk. On papal orders he returned in 992 to find little change. He came into sharp conflict with some of the nobility and was probably drawn into the growing feuds between the Czech kings and the Slavník princes. Disillusioned, in 994 he left Bohemia again to become a missionary along the Baltic coast, where he was martyred three years later. An account of Adalbert's life was written by his friend and disciple St. Bruno of Querfurt.