In the course of the Middle Ages, the written form of prayers directed toward Saint Ludmila was practically missing. While her name was stated in litanies along with other female saints in the manuscripts of the Benedictine Nuns from the Convent of Saint George, she was not included in much private devotion. A simple statement of her name in private prayer books of Abbess Kunhuta at Saint George’s Convent (XII D 11 and XII D 12) from the early 14th century is the only exception.
The personal devotion dedicated to Saint Ludmila can be limited to Saint George’s Convent and its milieu in the early times. While the name Lidmila appeared in the settlement below Prague Castle, there are no records on pilgrimages to Saint George’s Convent, pilgrim badges to venerate her remains, and later xylographs picturing her. In the post-Hussite period, the cult of Saint Ludmila was motivated by the chalice from which she reputedly received the Holy Blood and that was enshrined in Mělník which enhanced the importance of the town. This is perhaps the reason why a church consecrated to Saint Ludmila was built there in the late 16th century; however, it must be added that the name of the donor – Lidmila – was probably only coincidental.
The prayer literature with the motifs of Saint Ludmila was mostly concentrated around the Catholic-oriented domestic literates throughout the 16th century. The publisher Jan Mantuán Fencl was among the first. In collaboration with the printer Hieronymus Höltzel in Nuremberg, he prepared the prayer book Hortulus anime: Zahrádka duše (Hortulus anime: The Garden of the Soul)with the portraits of foreign and domestic saints. But the depiction of Saint Ludmila survived only in the second edition of Hortulus in Plzeň in 1533 that was done by the typographer Tomáš Bakalář and used again in 1550. The Hortulus prayer books were restored by the Bohemian printers in the first half of the 17th century.
In addition to the more cosmopolitan Hortulus books, prayer books dedicated only to the Bohemian patron saints – including Saint Ludmila – were published. Jiří Barthold of Breitenberg, aka Pontanus, compiled the first representative of these ‘patriotic prayers’ during the pre-White Mountain period under the title Duchovní obveselení koruny české (The Spiritual Stimulation of the Bohemian Crown). The printer Zikmund Léva of Brozánky followed him shortly after the Battle of White Mountain and Jan Ignác Dlouhoveský continued in the Baroque period. The latter linked the cult of the patrons of the Kingdom of Bohemia with the Palladium of Stará Boleslav in the illustrated Bohemian Crown.
The prayers to Saint Ludmila appeared only sporadically in folk prayer books published in the Baroque period. Perhaps only the repeated editions of Modlitby katolické jednomu každému věrnému křesťanu (Catholic Prayers for Every Loyal Christian), Malý nebeklíč (Little Himmelschlüssel Prayer Book) by Martin von Cochem, and Křesťanský hlas všeobecní (The General Christian Voice) by Vojtěch František Josef Levinský invited people to the veneration of Saint Ludmila.
All the above-mentioned collections of prayers treated Saint Ludmila as the patron saint of Bohemia or the female saint that was present at the birth of Bohemian Christianity. The adoption of motifs and copying overshadowed the originality of authors (e.g. Levinský incorporated the prayer from the Hortulus in his Christian Voice and Dlouhoveský drew inspiration from Pontanus).
Images
- Prayer to Saint Ludmila
Private prayers of Abbess Kunhuta, early 14th century, Bohemia
NKP XII D 11, fol. 221r - Saint Ludmila – woodcut
Hortulus anime. Olomouc: Jiří Handl, 1616
KNM 38 E 16, p. 364 - Saint Ludmila – woodcut
Jiří Barthold Pontanus of Breitenberk: The Spiritual Stimulation of the Bohemian Crown
Prague: Jiří Černý of Černý Most, 1599
KNM 36 G 6, p. 54 - Saint Ludmila, Little Wenceslas and Angel – engraving
Hortulus animae: The Garden of the Soul
Prague: Jan Bylina the Elder, 1636
Strahov BA III 29, p. 372 - Saint Ludmila with a bonnet and a veil around her neck as the symbol of her death
Hortulus animae, Plzeň: Tomáš Bakalář, 1533
54 F 256, l. CXXIIb
