The Archdiocese of Prague (Praha) (Latin: Archidioecesis Pragensis; Czech: Arcidiecéze pražská) is a Metropolitan Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, in the Czech Republic.
The cathedral archiepiscopal see is St. Vitus Cathedral, in the Bohemian and Czech capital Prague, entirely situated inside the Prague Castle complex. Jan Graubner is the current archbishop.
The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy, (Old Czech: Češské kniežěstvie) was a monarchy and a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages. It was formed around 870 by Czechs as part of the Great Moravian realm. Bohemia separated from disintegrating Great Moravia after Duke Spytihněv swore fealty to the East Frankish king Arnulf in 895.
While the Bohemian dukes of the Přemyslid dynasty, at first ruling at Prague Castle and Levý Hradec, brought further estates under their control, the Christianization initiated by Saints Cyril and Methodius was continued by the Frankish bishops of Regensburg and Passau. In 973, the Diocese of Prague was founded through the joint efforts of Duke Boleslaus II and Emperor Otto I. Later Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, killed by his younger brother Boleslaus in September 935, became the land's patron saint.
Jan Graubner (born 29 August 1948) is a Czech prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Archbishop of Prague since July 2022. He was Archbishop of Olomouc in the Czech Republic from 1992 to 2022, after serving as an auxiliary there for two years.
The Coronation of the Bohemian monarch was a ceremony in which the king (or queen-regnant) and queen-consort (if there was one) were formally crowned, anointed, and invested with regalia. It was similar in form to coronation ceremonies in other parts of the Holy Roman Empire, in France, and in Hungary. As in France and England, the king's reign began immediately upon the death of his predecessor, especially after 1627.
Location of all coronations was St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, from the time it was founded (except for the secular coronations of the earliest kings). The representative of the Church performing the coronation (consecrator) was the Archbishop of Prague as Primas Bohemiae. Until the archbishopric of Prague was established in 1344, the archbishop of Mainz had the privilege of crowning the king and queen of Bohemia (from 1228 to 1344). This right was derived from his position as Primas Germaniae of the Holy Roman Empire and ecclesiastical overlord of the Bohemian dioceses of Prague and Olomouc. During the Sede vacante of the archdiocese of Prague from 1421 to 1561, the position of consecrator was mostly filled by bishop of Olomouc (highest local Roman Catholic bishop after archbishop of Prague) or by foreign bishops. During coronation, the archbishop was assisted by two bishops (mostly from the lands of the Bohemian Crown).
The following is a list of bishops and archbishops of Prague. The bishopric of Prague was established in 973, and elevated to an archbishopric on 30 April 1344. The current Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague is the continual successor of the bishopric established in 973 (with a 140-year sede vacante in the Hussite era). In addition, the city also has an Eastern Orthodox archeparchy (archbishopric), Greek Catholic exarchate and the Prague diocese and patriarchate of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church seat in Prague.