St Procopius of Sázava (Sv. Prokop), Brtnice, Czech Republic
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N 49° 47.766 E 014° 55.490
33U E 494589 N 5515963
Baroque statue of St Procopius of Sázava from 1723 at settlement Brtnice near Ceský Sternberk (Central Bohemia)
Waymark Code: WMW56P
Location: Středočeský kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 07/11/2017
Views: 19
The beautiful Baroque statue of St Procopius of Sázava (Sv. Prokop) can be found at a road nearsettlement Brtnice near Ceský Šternberk (Central Bohemia)just at the D1 highway from Prague to Brno. According to Latin chronogram hidden in Latin prayer on the front part of richly decorated pedestal it cpomes from 1723. St Procopius is depicted here with his typical attributes - wearing a bishop robe with a mitre on his head, and with devil tied with a chain sitting by at his feet.
St Procopius
The biographical features of St. Procopius appear only dimly in the mists of a distant age, in the dawn of the Christian history of central Europe. Few are the certain facts, and much must be conjecture.
St. Procopius seems to have been born into a Christian family in the newly-evangelized Bohemia of the late tenth century. With the encouragement of his parents, he prepared himself for priesthood in the Eastern Rite. He was ordained in or soon after the year 1003. Within a short time, though, he discovered that his thirst for God required a more intense form of discipleship, and so he entered the monastic life, possibly in Hungary.
So advanced was Procopius in the quest for perfection that his abbot granted his request to devote himself to God as a hermit. Sometime after 1029, he returned to his native land, still living as a hermit, but with the dream of being the means by which an Eastern Rite monastery might be established among the Czech people.
Living in the Sazava Valley, he soon became known and respected by the local population. One day he encountered a group of hunters, led by Duke Oldrich. The two men entered into a long conversation, and so impressed was the Duke by Procopius’ transparent sanctity that he decided to support the monk’s lofty desires.
An Eastern Rite monastery was therefore established, one governed by Procopius in accordance with the rules of St. Basil and St. Benedict. For the remainder of his life, Procopius served his community as abbot, and his fame apparently spread as far as Russia. Numerous stories of cures and other miracles are associated with the holy abbot. One famous account, symbolizing Christian triumph over sin and temptation, tells of Procopius hitching the devil to a plow and compelling that otherwise useless entity to dig a ditch along the river-bank.
St. Procopius died in 1053 and was formally recognized as a saint by Pope Innocent III in 1204. His monastery at Sazava survived until 1785, and the saint continues to be revered by the Czech nation.
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