Saint Wenceslas Chorale

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Czech. (March 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Czech Wikipedia article at [[:cs:Svatováclavský chorál]]; see its history for attribution.
You should also add the template {{Translated|cs|Svatováclavský chorál}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Saint Wenceslas Chorale (Czech: Svatováclavský chorál) or simply Saint Wenceslas is the church hymn and one of the oldest known Czech songs and Czech religious anthems. Its roots can be found in the 12th century and it belongs to the most popular religious songs also today, and to the oldest still used European chants. The hymn is mentioned as "old and well-known" in the chronicle from the 13th century.^[1] Also strophic structure, language and undulating melody and harmonization confirm that assumption. The text of the song had originally three strophes. To the chant, originally in Old Czech, some new strophes have been added and also removed from over the centuries. Its final form becomes from the turn 18th and 19th century and in that version is still used today.

The content of the anthem is a prayer to Saint Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia and the Czech patron saint to intercede for his nation in God to help from injustice and ensure the salvation. The hymn is regularly sung today, usually at the end of a Sunday Mass or a major Christian holidays.

In 1918, in the beginnings of the Czechoslovak state, the song was discussed as a possible candidate for the national anthem.