St. John of Nepomuk' Cross - Charles Bridge (Prague) - Urban Legends and Superstitions on Waymarking.com

The place on Charles Bridge, where St. John of Nepomuk was thrown in the river in the year 1383 (couple meters from its Baroque statue), is connected with a nice legend. Here you can see brassy cross with five stars on the left parapet of the bridge. Legend says that five stars appeared when John of Nepomuk touched the water. Here you are supposed to touch the cross and the stars with your left hand and make a wish. Whatever your wish, it will come true!

John Nepomuk studied at the Universities of Prague and Padua and in 1387, under the reign of King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia, Emperor of Rome he was named vicar-general to the bishop of Prague.

He was a worthy, valuable man in the cleric society of those times and was offered the bishop’s place many times, but each time he refused with honesty, considering that there were others, far more worthy than he was. Here is where legend and reality come apart. Chronicles say that he had learned of the King’s plan to reward an unworthy cleric with an abbey and he convinced the monks into electing a new abbot behind King Wenceslas IV back. He was therefore accused of treachery and sent to prison along with the archbishop and others. The archbishop managed to escape, but John of Nepomuk was tortured to death and his body was plunged into the River Vltava (Moldau).

It is said that in the same night when John was murdered, five stars were seen over the very spot where he was drowned. As time passed, another hypothesis was spread along with the Saint’s story. As legend has it, King Wenceslas IV was a very jealous man and suspected his wife of being unfaithful. Wanting to find out the truth, he asked vicar John to inform him of his wife’s confession. As John refused, the king had him murdered and thrown in the river. John Wolfin, born in Nepomuk, was canonized in 1729 as Patron Saint of: discretion, floods and slander.