John Nepomucen, Or John Of Nepomnk, a saint of the Roman Catholic church, born at Nepo-muk or Pomuk, Bohemia, about 1330, died in Prague in 1383 or 1393. He graduated at the university of Prague, and was successively rector of the church of St. Gall in Prague, canon of the metropolitan chapter, and rector of Tein. In 1378 he was chosen court preacher by the emperor Wenceslas, and appointed almoner and chaplain to the empress Johanna. He was imprisoned for reproving the emperor's cruelty, and was offered his liberty on condition of revealing to Wenceslas the confession of the empress. Refusing to do this, he was inhumanly tortured. Being released at the solicitation of Johanna, he was urged anew to disclose the desired secret, and finally, bound hand and foot, was cast into the Moldau. The body was taken from the river and buried amid a vast concourse and universal grief. The miracles said to be performed at his tomb attracted pilgrims from all parts. He was regarded as a martyr by the Bohemians, and was canonized by Benedict XIII., March 19, 1729, and designated as the patron saint of Bohemia. His festival is celebrated on May 16. Since his canonization several writers have contested the authenticity of the facts recited in the legend of John Nepomucen. Some maintain that two personages named John of Nepomuk existed nearly at the same time; and that a great similarity in the circumstances attending their death caused much confusion in the popular traditions concerning them. - See Berghauer, Protomartyr Poenitentioe (Augsburg, 1736); Marne, Vie de St. Jean Nepomucene (Paris, 1741); Pubitschka, Ehrenrettung des heiligen Johannes von Nepomuk (Prague, 1791); and Abel, Die Legende des heiligen Johannes von Nepomuk (Berlin, 1855).