Radim Gaudentius (970 – c. 1020) was Archbishop of Gniezno and the first Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 archbishop.

Radim was an illegitimate son of Prince Slavník

Slavník

Slavník was a Bohemian nobleman, the founder of Slavník's dynasty. He is said to have had consanguinity with the Saxon kings.He had several children by his wife Střezislava. Six of his sons are known by name: Soběslav , Saint Adalbert , Spytimír, Pobraslav, Pořej and Čáslav. He had also a son...

, and thus the half-brother of Adalbert of Prague

Adalbert of Prague

This article is about St Adalbert of Prague. For other uses, see Adalbert .Saint Adalbert, Czech: ; , , Czech Roman Catholic saint, a Bishop of Prague and a missionary, was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. He evangelized Poles and Hungarians. St...

.
In 989, the two journeyed to Rome where they joined the Benedictine monastery of Sts. Boniface and Alexius on the Aventine, with Radim adopting the name Gaudencius or Gaudentius. He accompanied Adalbert on his fatal journey to Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 in 997.

Surviving the mission fatal to his half-brother, back in Rome he related the events of the journey to Abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

 John Canaparius

John Canaparius

John Canaparius was a Benedictine monk at the Aventine monastery in Rome. It had long been assumed that in the year 999 he wrote the first Vita sancti Adalberti episcopi Pragensis, or "Life of St...

, who wrote a biography of Adalbert, and worked to promote his canonization

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

.

Literature

• Attwater, D.: Slovník svatých, Vimperk 1993
• Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.
• Bruno z Querfurtu
  Bruno of Querfurt
  Saint Bruno of Querfurt , also known as Brun and Boniface, is a sainted missionary bishop and martyr, who was beheaded near the border of Kievan Rus and Lithuania while trying to spread Christianity in Eastern Europe...
  
  : Život svatého Vojtěcha, Praha 1996
• Kolektiv: Bohemia Sancta: životopisy českých světců a přátel Božích, Praha 1990
• Kolektiv: Svatý Vojtěch, sborník k mileniu, Praha 1997
• Michal Lutovský, Zdeněk Petráň: Slavníkovci ISBN 80-7277-291-0

links

• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06590b.htm