The Mystery of the Cross and
Resurrection Mark Our Way of Life
By S. Dominika Gadleckova, Slovakian Province
Translated by Fr. Timote Masar, SJ, Zurich and S. Elizabeth Brandsttater
Editorial revision by S. Ann Wittman, USA Province
Our Slovakian sisters have published a book about their personal experiences and the history of their province. It gives all of us insight into the most difficult years of their province. Every page of the book speaks of the “power of the believing heart.” One of the goals of communism was the extinction of religious orders. But, see and behold, religious orders are alive and flourishing. Sister Dominika and other sisters bear testimony to this.
This history of the Slovakian Province gives us a glimpse into the cruelties endured during the time of the totalitarian regime. It speaks of the heroic lives of our sisters, who by the power of the cross remained faithful to Christ, living the pascal mystery.
The Arrival of the First Holy Cross Sisters in Slovakia
This oldest foundation outside Switzerland occurred because Baron August Majthenyi invited Holy Cross Sisters to run the hospital in Ziate Moravia. The chronicle of Aiete Moravia reads as follows: “On June 23, 1863, the government officials of the district decided to have a collection for the founding and upkeep of the hospital in Chryzerovce. A committee was formed to negotiate with Ingenbohl to get sisters for the newly founded hospital.
Father Theodosius was in favor of this new foundation and so three brave sisters started their journey to Slovakia to work there for the Church with the good, God-fearing Slovakian people. Sister Leontia Fuernberger hailed from the Czech Republic. Only thirty two years old, she was made the superior of the small community. Sister Mary Regelinda Foppe came from Linz, Upper Austria. The name of the third sister is not recorded. All of them spoke German, and we can suppose that at least one of them knew the Slovak language so as to act as interpreter. On February 18, 1865, the burial day of Father Theodosius, two more sisters left Ingenbohl for Slovakia. A third sister joined them in Vienna.
The Countess of Reverterova of Linz wrote in a letter dated February 20, 1865, that two sisters had arrived at 11 pm and went on the next day to Uhorsko. The sisters arrived in Ziate, Moravia, on February 21, 1865. Through their courageous dedication and devotion they laid the foundation of the future Slovakian Province. In the house for the poor, where the first sisters cared for the residents, they found a cross that Father Theodosius himself had hung on the wall, saying, “Here sisters will learn to love the cross.”
For more than ten years the hospital in Ziate, Moravia, in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was the only place of work for our sisters. Several times Mother Theresa paid a visit there. The sisters’ work among the people was fruitful, and God awakened many new vocations. The Slovakian Province in Podunajka, Biskupice, was founded in the year 1927 and flourished so that by the year 1949 there were 541 professed sisters, 21 novices, and 138 candidates. Out of a small seed a mighty tree had grown.
The Spread of Socialism in the Fifties
Immediately after the end of World War II, the spirit of communism spread throughout the country. In 1948 the Communist Party came into power and formed the government. They nationalized factories and mines and confiscated private property. At the same time they persecuted the Church. Suddenly priests, monks, sisters and laity were considered the greatest enemies of the state, and that even though the constitution guaranteed religious freedom. Times of hardship and persecution began. From the 13th to 14th of April, 1950 – during the Easter octave – all male monasteries were confiscated and all monks shifted to a so-called “Sammelkloster” or common monastery.
The Dismissal of Sisters Teaching in Schools
The first sign of the dispersal of religious sisters came before the end of the school year. Sisters teaching on all levels from kindergarten to the university were given notice of their dismissal on June 30, 1950, by the Education Department. Local officials were ordered by the Secret Police to shift the sisters teaching in the village school to their provincial house in Podunajake, Biskupice. Because of these drastic measures all institutes where the sisters had been teaching were closed down. Sisters who would forego wearing their religious dress would have been allowed to continue teaching, but the sisters knew that at that time this would mean giving up their religious vocation. Remaining faithful to their call and continuing to wear the habit, they were driven from their places of work.
Sister Maristella Sucha describes her experience as follows:
We, too had to leave from our convent in Haniska. The dramatic and fatal day was August 30, 1950. On that day I worked in the outpatient department. Three men appeared and demanded that I step into their car. They showed me their identity cards and said that they had orders from the Secret Police to bring me to Haniska. My protests were of no avail. They told me that if I didn’t oblige, they would have to use force. None of the patients – about 15 to 20 – defended me nor was a word said by the standers-by. I stepped into the car accompanied by the Secret Police. And for sure they took me to Haniska. During my two hours away the whole scene had changed. In the courtyard of our convent I saw a truck covered with tarpauline. My two fellow-sisters had already packed their belonging. “What’s going on here?” I asked, and was told, “Get packed within two hours and get into the car.” The Secret Police followed me to my room and under their vigilance I packed my things. The rooms were immediately sealed. There were fifteen Secret Police in the courtyard and convent building. The convent was under siege and no one could come or go. The police carried weapons. I wondered why so many cruel police were necessary for three sisters.
After one hour of packing, we were forced into the truck. Meanwhile, the village people, who had got the news that the sisters were forcefully evacuated, came running, especially the children and young people and men and women who wanted to be with us. To frighten the people, the police fired shots and chased them away brutally. Some men and boys were arrested but released after the truck started off.
It was only after insistent pleading and our refusal to leave unless the sacred hosts were removed that one policeman allowed us to take the Blessed Sacrament from our chapel to the parish church. Heart-rending was the moment when our parish priest, Canon Augustine Richtartschik, blessed us with the monstrance.
My parents, too, got the news of our deportation. Since my place of birth is only two kilometers from our convent, my mother came running to give me her blessing. Cruelly, the police kept her back, showing no compassion for my poor mother. I could still catch a glimpse of her among the crowd but could not hear what she said, as the shouting and weeping of children drowned her voice. The tarpauline covered the truck, so that people were not able to see us, and a cloud of dust behind the truck prevented us from seeing the children. However, young people on bicycles still accompanied us for some distance.
It is really difficult to put into words our deep sorrow with all that we experienced
Vocations to Religious Life
Even though God allowed this persecution, He always surrounded His faithful with tender love. That’s why the communists could not extinguish the fire of vocation from young hearts and how God saw to an unexpected turn of events.
S. Octavia Tarasovicora remembers this unique providence of God:
During our novitiate in 1950 we were divided into three groups. The first group took their vows in May and were assigned to various places of work. For the second group the fifteenth of August, the Feast of the Assumption, was to be the day of profession. My group, in which were fourteen novices, were to finish the novitiate on January 25, 1951. Because the political situation worsened and one never knew what would happen next, the provincial superior, S. Livia Klukulciakova, gave us permission to wear the religious habit from August 15th on along with the second group, even though we had not yet completed the canonical year of novitiate and could not take vows.
On August 22, 1950, we in the third group of novices and already in habit were called to the provincial’s office. She told us that in the near future the convent would come under strict state control. “We do not know what awaits us in the future,” she said. “We may have to suffer much for the sake of our vocation. As you have not yet any obligation and are not bound by vows, you may return to your parents if you wish.” With one voice all of us fourteen novices replied, “We ask permission to take our vows. With God’s help we are ready to give our lives, should the Lord ask this from us.”
That very evening in the presence of the sisters and without any solemnity we pronounced our first vows before the provincial superior.
Dismissal of Candidates and Postulants
Soon the government assigned women wardens to the provincial house in Podunasjski who watched the sisters’ every move. These women were arrogant and their presence inspired fear and anxiety in the sisters. Because the novices were wearing the religious habit, the women spies were not aware that they were not professed sisters. However, the different dress of candidates and postulants drew their attention. According to an official order, these women were to leave Podunajske Biskupice secretly by night train so that the people would not notice. All was well organized. The wardens brought clothes in a truck, and forced the candidates and postulants to put them on. That night they were to leave the provincial house. Dressed in secular clothes they were forced into a truck covered with a tarpauline and eventually reached the railway station of Bratislava. From there they dispersed to all directions of Slovakia, each one with her suitcase in hand.
Even before they left the provincial house, these women had to sign a contract promising not to join the so-called “Underground Church,” although none of them really knew what that was. Such forced departures were, of course, accompanied by tears and waits. There was no alternative. The whole takeover had been cleverly organized and executed down to the minutest detail.
The Fate of the Candidates in the Hospitals
S. Gisela Nemethova describes her story as follows:
As a candidate I worked as an auxiliary nurse in the outpatient department of the hospital at Trnava. In 1950 an order came from the totalitarian regime that within twenty four hours all the candidates were to be dismissed. But I did not want to go home! When the assistant provincial, S. Salomea Basovka, came from the state owned Meihof Havkac near Budmerice, where some of the sisters were interned and already working in the fields, we three candidates begged to be allowed to wear the habit and so save our vocations. After some consultation we were dressed in the religious garb. Then a very wise exchange took place. We three candidates of Trnava, newly dressed as professed sisters, proceeded by night train to Humenne in East Slovakia and from the hospital there, three other candidates, also newly given the sisters’ habit, went by night train to Trnava.
The doctors and patients noticed that something had happened, as in place of candidates suddenly very young sisters appeared. There were fourteen of these “new sisters.” One of the doctors remarked, “I know that our candidates went where you came from.” Yet no one betrayed us. All of this took place with the extraordinary help of God.
Deportation of the Sisters from the Provincial House and its Takeover
On the fateful day of September 27, 1950, after a whole night of packing our belongings, we sisters gathered after Mass in the refectory. Divided into three groups, the provincial superior read aloud the names of the sisters who were to be transported that day. The first group with old and sick sisters was taken to Ladce; the second group, suffer ring from T.B., had to go to Belusske Slatiny; and the third group of healthy and able young sisters was taken to the Meierhof Havkac near Budmerice.
Years of constantly being shifted here and there, years of hardship, suffering, insecurity and oppression had begun. Each group could tell their own stories. They were deliberately isolated from each other and could not contact or communicate with one another. No longer was community life possible in our Slovakian Province. Sisters of different congregations were put together in common houses. These communities had to face unimaginable and even incredible conditions and hardships – all imposed by the Communist Regime with the sole aim of destroying and uprooting religious life as such.
God gave the sisters the needed strength, so that even in such adverse situations they did not leave their congregations. Instead they awaited the end of persecution with faith and hope.”
The First Deportation to Ladce
In the first group were sixty five seriously ill sisters. Around eight a.m. six ambulances arrived at the provincial house. In pain and silently weeping, the sisters proceeded to the ambulances and into the unknown. The transportation of the sisters was all done very secretively and less traveled roads were taken so that the people in the area would not know about the drama that was taking place. The supervisors, too, were very unfriendly and suspicious, again and again counting the sisters to make sure that no one was missing. What happened at the start? When the bus came near the gate, it suddenly broke down and would not start again. The driver asked the sisters to pray so that the motor would start again. On both sides of the gate weeping people had gathered. Then the sisters prayed and the bus proceeded.
Deeply saddened, they passed through the gate which was closed behind them for ever. By midnight they had reached the provincial house of the Vincentian Sisters, but their stay there was but a short while. Scarcely had they settled in when an order came to leave for Pruske. Again after that they were shifted to the Ursuline Sisters in Modra, near Bratislava; then they were brought to the Pezinok charity home, the former Capuchin monastery. Some of them were sent to Jasov to the convent of the Praemonstratensions in East Slovakia. But this, too, was not the end of it. All of these hardships, uncertainties and constant moving from place to place, were done with the purpose of weakening the sisters so that they might die sooner. But the Lord was with his faithful ones. He protected them.
The Second Group: Deportation to Belusske Slatiny
In the second group were about fifty sickly sisters suffering from tuberculosis. With buses and trucks they were brought to Belusske Slatiny. Though sick, the sisters were made to work in the house garden and even at times in the fields. Women were placed over them as wardens. The sisters had to fetch the milk from a mountain which was three kilometers away.
From time to time the Secret Police organized roundups. One day after Mass an alarm was given that no one was to leave the room. All exits were locked and into each room came strange men commissioned to search the room. Each sister had to show her suitcase and personal belongings. Minutely they scrutinized anything written, any addresses or names of contacts of the sisters. They examined every piece of paper and cross-examined the sisters. The whole procedure lasted five long hours. Such were the hardships these sickly sisters had to endure. However, the sisters did not stay long in Belusske Slatiny. From here the sick sisters were taken to Jasov and the somewhat better off ones to Ivanka near Nitra.
As convents and monasteries were liquidated by the government, some were converted into charity homes or “collective convents.” These collective convents were under communist supervision and control. Such convents for sisters were established in Jasov, Podolinec, Vrbove, and Sladeckovce. In Jasov there were 386 sisters of fourteen congregations. This was not a well established house. When new arrivals were brought in and the officials escorting them were told that there really was no room, they simply walked off, saying, “Put them in the courtyard. Someone will surely make room and take them in.”
And somehow the sisters managed. The refectory had room for only 110, so there were three shifts for each meal. Smaller groups took their meals in their rooms. One can imagine the difficulties and sacrifices the sisters underwent to live in such circumstances. The health of the elderly sisters deteriorated because of the constant moving and the ha rdships connected with it. Nine Holy Cross Sisters lie buried in the graveyard of Jasov.
Harvesting in the field (L.) and with the bees (R.)
Third Group: Deportation to the Meierhof in Havkac
The healthy and those able to work were transported to Havkac. In the process of socialization, big farms were nationalized and so also was the Meirhof, which once had belonged to an Earl. The sisters were to work in the fields. Twenty five sisters were accommodated in a small farmhouse, but it was an accommodation beneath human dignity.
Sister Oktavia Tarasovicova, at that time a newly professed sister, remembers this:
As we stepped into the bus we sang to Mary, our protectress. With tears in our eyes we looked back once more at our beloved convent, Podunajske Biskupice, as the bus started to move. The Secret Police accompanied us. In my mind I mused “How come that sisters who did so much good for people in hospitals, schools, orphanages and home for the poor and elderly are now suddenly considered dangerous enemies of the State?”
On September 27, 1950, towards evening forty three able sisters arrived in Havkac. Among them were the provincial administration, the superiors and teaching sisters of the confiscated and liquidated houses, and the newly professed sisters. The provincial superior, S. Livia Klukulciakova, held a crucifix in her hand, and the assistant carried a statue of the Sorrowful Mother. All looked pale and worn out. Their belongings and furniture arrived only at midnight. Meanwhile, prisoners had been put to work to packand load the provincial house things into a truck.
After a restless night in Havkac the sisters got up in the morning, hungry and thirsty and with aches and pains all over their bodies. A woman carrying a pitcher of milk came and said, “Here, my dear little Sisters. a pitcher of milk for you. The manager wants you to know that you will get milk daily. Do you have bread? If not, don’t worry. We won’t let you starve to death. Only remain faithful to Christ.” She was a large hearted woman. The sisters called her “Aunt Valkova.” Surely, God rewarded her in heaven, for her words were like manna from heaven to the refugees.
The officials of Bratislava, however, did not give peace to the sisters in Havkac. They came again and again, trying to persuade the sisters to give up their religious habit. Their argument was that the life style of the sisters was no longer wanted in the atheistic and communist political system. Anyhow, within fifteen years, so they said, there would be no religious left in Slovakia. If they remained sisters, they would be deported from one place to another and lose their health. The sisters, however, remained faithful, stuck together and ignored the offer of freedom and good government posts.
The result was that they were transported from Havkac to Cifer to work on the transplanting of garlic. At the time of the sugarbeet harvest, the sisters were made to work ten hours a day. This was very strenuous work to which they were not accustomed. In addition they had to put up with the hardship of seasonal change – in summer, heat; in autumn and winter, rain and frost and wind. In the winter months they also had to air the corn in the barn.
Planting garlic in the field (above)
S. Bhumila writes about her memories:
After our arrival we were told to work in the fields. We always had a supervisor with us whom we called “Uncle Ochaba.” He was a good man. But even in the house we were not left alone. A female warden supervised and spied on us. Without her explicit permission we could not go out of the house. She gave each of us a “Bumaska,” an identity card which we had to carry with us whenever we went out for anything other than field work. However, Uncle Obacha did his duty exemplarily.
In Autumn we harvested sugarbeets and potatoes and planted garlic, as well as doing other necessary work. In December when harvesting sugarbeets was cold and frosty, our hands got wounded. Old stockings served us as gloves. When the stocking got frosted and wet, we cut it off and pulled the dry part of the stocking over our hands.
The midday meal was brought to us in the field. There was no drinking water.
The sisters expressed their feelings in songs which they themselves composed. One collection of songs was titled, “Songs of Expellees.” The fact that they could not do the work to which they had been called distressed them. Yet they found a new way of living their vocation by uniting all their sufferings with Christ for the salvation of the world. They held on to the hope that this present condition would not last forever, and the day would dawn when they could return to their original convents and apostolates.
Sisters of three congregations with their masters (above)
In the Factories Along the Czech Border
After the expulsion pf the German-speaking people from the Czech border in the 1950’s, the Slovakian government tried to send one thousand young people to work in the vacant factories. However, no one wanted to migrate to the Czech border as they had ample opportunities for employment in Slovakia. So in their place the young sisters of all congregations were sent to do the factory work. One group of young Holy Cross Sisters was selected to go from Havkac to Svetia near Bruntal in Schlesien for this purpose.
On the night of October 21, 1951, forty sisters were taken to the dilapidated factory called “Lenas” where hemp was woven into cloth. When the sisters reached the border as they were taken from their motherland, they sang. The clock of the tower of Trencin struck mournfully, according to one writer, and she continued, “We are deported from our Slovakia; they take us away; yet we are without fear for one day certainly we shall return.”
(Above) Sister Nazarina working at the machine.
Sister Livia, the provincial superior, recalls memories of the factory in Svetia:
A wonderful crucifix had been built into the wall of the staircase extending for two floors in length. The previous owner of the factory had placed it there. The day before the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, the manager of the factory shouted at us, “Are you going to work tomorrow or not?”
We replied, “No, Mr. Director, we had told you that we would get the material ready in the night shift.”
And angrily he retorted, “Then you will see what’s going to happen!”
The next morning we saw seven men at work, removing the monumental cross, which was like a wonderful tree growing up along the staircase from the foundation of the building. It was engraved and built into the wall. The workers tore the iron structure on which the cross was fastened out from the wall. When we asked, “Where is the cross?” the men yelled, “He ascended into heaven!”
We were very sad but had no words, only our eyes filled with tears and we asked Our Lord Jesus for pardon for this wicked act. The wooden corpus had been burned in the oven. However, soon the manager repented this decision for in the process of removing the cross, the load-bearing trusses had been damaged and a deep crack appeared in the wall from top to bottom. Within a few days building inspectors determined that the factory had to be closed for security reasons, as it was totally unsafe to continue work there. The factory manager told us, “Because you chased God away from the factory, He has taken away your daily bread. See what you have done. Find your own place of work.”
The sisters, too, had to search for work. They found it in wool factories close to Karlsbad. They were put up in an old school building in Bernov and from there went to Nejdek daily by bus to work. After two weeks of apprenticeship they managed to handle the machines themselves, and some elderly sisters sorted the wool. There in Bernov twenty one sisters took their final vows.
(Above) Celebration of final profession in Bemov
Hejnice – a Prison for Superiors
A new blow was the imprisonment of the superiors of all religious congregations.
On June 28, 1952, members of the Secret Police came to Svetia to get our provincial superior, Sister Livia Klukulciakova, and her assistant, Sister Melania. At that moment, Sister Melania was in her working dress, prepared to begin the night shift. The police would not allow her to change her clothes, nor would they permit the two to take along any of their personal belongings. They were immediately to get into the car and be brought to Hejnice.
(L.)Sisters working in the field
Osek u Duchcova
The sisters were transferred from place to place all over Slovakia. Some succumbed and died. Suddenly there was no room for the Slovakian sisters in their own homeland! On June 12, 1962, a decree was issued from Prague: “The sisters staying in Jasov must be transferred to Osek u Duchkova.” This meant traveling from East Slovakia to the West Czech area. Again we packed our things and moved. Fifty sisters were taken from Jasov to the convent of Osek u Duchcova. Among them were sick and elderly sisters, some in a precarious condition. Such inhuman treatment of the sisters made this the most painful transfer. Yet the sisters accepted this sacrifice in the hope that one day they would again return to their beloved home in Slovakia.
A former Cistercian convent had been turned into the charity home of Osek. This church and convent had been counted among the most precious historical monuments of the country. In the biography of Father Theodosius we read that several times he visited this convent to rest and sometimes to stay over night when he was in the process of acquiring the factory at Oberleutensdorf near Litivinov. The sisters’ forced stay here came to an end June 29, 1969, when the sisters were given permission to return to their home in Slovakia.
Holy Cross Sisters in Prison
Among the many unjustly condemned and imprisoned persons of those days were twelve Holy Cross Sisters. Many of the sisters were aware of the importance of defending the Church, especially the priests and monks. But government machinery would not tolerate anything that went against their plans. To help those persecuted meant signing your own death warrant. This was what happened to some of our Holy Cross Sisters. One of these was Sister Barbara Kristina Sevcikova, who died in prison. Sisters were imprisoned in different places. Cross examinations and other conditions in those prisons were brutal. Prisoners were kept in dark cells and day and night had to undergo cruel interrogations and other forms of violence. During interrogation the sisters were tortured, even more so than other prisoners.
There exists no recorded testimonies of sisters imprisoned in those years. The reason for this is that released prisoners were strictly required not to divulge any information about their prison stay. The only documented case is the imprisonment of Blessed Sister Zdenka. It was her fellow prisoner, Mrs. Helena Kordova-Wildeova that drew attention to and gave witness to Sister Zdenka forty years after her death. The terrible facts were gathered and scrutinized and made full use of in the cause for beatification. The climax of this investigation and a great blessing for the whole of Slovakia was Pope John Paul II’s beatification of Sister Zdenka on September 14, 2003, in Bratislava Petrzalka.
Holic
Recall of Sisters Working in Hospitals
The sisters who had been working in hospitals or charity homes and were still able to work were assigned to look after old and handicapped persons in the newly established institutes of the government Social Services Department. These kinds of establishments were located in Krskany, in Matilda Huta, in Kosatky, and in Stod.
In the chronicle of Holic we read that the provincial superior, Sister Livia, received the sisters at the entrance and then led them first of all to the chapel, gave them a blessing, and said these encouraging words: “You are going to work in a diamond mine, for here your work will be most precious.” She distributed the duties and as an exemplary sister and mother, took over the first night duty herself.
A smaller group of Holy Cross sisters from Stod went to Nejdek. The work there was very demanding. Eighty boys had to be cared for by the sisters. With great dedication they looked after them. At inspection after several months the officials were surprised to see how much progress the boys had made. “How on earth could you achieve this great improvement?” the inspectress asked in wonder. Without hesitation the sisters answered, “There is only one key to this success – love. For love can move mountains and bear all hardships. And the love of Christ urges us to serve these poorest of the poor.”
New Hope for Religious Life
The Dubcek period in the years 1968-1969 brought temporary changes for the better to the political scene in Czechoslovakia. Anti-communist and anti-socialist influence gained momentum. The religious superiors, without delay and very wisely, used this time of letup to admit new candidates to religious life. At the beginning of 1968 opportunity was given to teach religion in schools. So courses were organized to prepare sisters. Many parishes asked for sisters to work as catechists and in other pastoral positions. Soon there were thirteen institutes which trained sisters for pastoral work.
One of the important apostolates of the provincial administration was the organizing of retreats for girls who showed interest in a deeper spiritual life. Father Jozef Sabo, SVD, of Osek u Duchcova was the retreat master for one of these. Of the thirty one participants, twenty-three joined our congregation as candidates. After having been prohibited from admitting candidates for nineteen years, this was a really precious gift. Those new candidates were referred to as the “Dubcek flowers,” and they were surely the fruit of and reward for the absolute fidelity and perseverance of the sisters during the terrible times of trial and persecution.
“Normalization” During the Year 1970
The Communist Party determined to again enforce a totalitarian from of government and Czechoslovakia was again annexed to Soviet Russia. A new purging took place in public life. People who opposed communism were deprived of their passports and were not allowed to move about freely. Again there were political prisoners and investigations, many court cases. Many people emigrated. The Church was again suppressed. Everything possible was undertaken to prevent the renewal of religious life. Opponents of the regime, who were labeled dissidents, published and disseminated anti-regime literature.
The First Novitiate in Slovenska L’upca
Since the sisters now had no house or convent or establishment of their own and were not sure of the future, the superiors sought such a place and a house for the novitiate. The solution to this problem became the Charity Home of Slovenska L’upca. In September of 1969 more than fifty elderly sisters were transferred there from the charity house in Sladeckovce. The place was a fortress from the twelfth century with tremendously thick walls and high ceilings and spacious rooms where fourteen to sixteen beds could easily fit. There twenty two newly admitted candidates were accommodated. So that no one would notice that they were candidates, they were employed and made responsible for the running of the whole establishment.
Sister Maria Goretti Statiskova remembers:
As candidates we came to the fortress of Slovenska L’upca dressed in the habit. There our formation began. During our two year formation period we were fully employed. In 1970 the sickly and elderly sisters of the Dominican and Franciscan congregations joined us. Two religious brothers were responsible for the farm. There were seventy Holy Cross Sisters so all together we were one hundred persons.
Besides formation education we were responsible for the running of the house, the dispensary, the kitchen, the laundry and the garden. During the summer months we also had to harvest grass. These were difficult circumstances. The fort could only be reached by horse sleigh during the winter season. We had to secure wood and coal for the cold season during summer. The bigger rooms each had an iron stove, and these rooms remained warm as long as the stove was fed wood or coal. They cooled down immediately and became very cold when no fire was burning, as the insulation for the windows was poor.
But we were young and full of enthusiasm for the Lord, so we could put up with all kinds of difficulties and still be very happy. A support for us novices were the Steyler Missionary Fathers, especially Father Vojtech Bosansky, who directed several retreats for the sisters. We also had jubilee celebrations for our sisters, and we youngsters presented programs to the delight of our fellow-sisters.
After two years of formation, on the evening of September 13, 1971, we had a secret celebration in our chapel. Behind locked doors and without Holy Mass, eighteen novices pronounced their first vows before the provincial, Sister Melania Solcova. Only the provincial administration was present. The next morning, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we renewed our vows during Holy Mass together with all the other sisters.
Cerova
In the 70’s there was not room for all the sisters returning from Czechoslovakia in the charity homes of Ciz and Cerova. It was a precarious, hopeless situation. Finally, the problem was solved with the acquisition of the two hundred sixty year old castle of Cerova. Dilapidated, empty, and in need of repairs, the castle was donated to the sisters by the municipality. They renovated and expanded the whole building. Within ten years it became a convent with one hundred seventy beds. Later it also became home to the old and sick sisters.
Transfer of the Novitiate to Cerova
On October 1st the first group of sisters came from Slovenska L’upca to Cerova. After two years fourteen novices took first vows in that chapel the evening of September 13, 1973. However, within a month the officials of the charity home dismissed these newly professed sisters. In shock they asked themselves where they would go and who would give them work. Those in positions of leadership had no answer for them but forced them to put aside their religious garb and leave.
Sister Veronika Gabrisakova gives the following account:
We took our first vows in great secrecy on the vigil of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Our superiors and a Capuchin priest, Father Angelus Senasi, were the only persons present. We could not even share our joy with our fellow sisters out of fear that inadvertently they might disclose this news to others.
Soon after that Mrs. Stanickova arrived. She had been deputed by the government to communicate our dismissal order, giving the reason that the Dubcek times were over and new regulations now held good. We were not acknowledged as religious and so we could not work as sisters in charity homes. Because the superiors defended us, they were able to save three of us. The reason they gave was that we three had entered the convent before the Dubcek times. Because of this, I worked for twenty years in Cerova as a sister.
Some years were full of challenges as the supervisors and managers kept being changed. Despite all the challenges, we kept up our spiritual exercises secretly on the Estrich of Cerova. From all over Slovakia, sisters used to come to us, some wearing civil dress. From us they got the religious habit, even though this involved a dangerous risk. Much circumspection and courage were needed. On visits to sisters outside Cerova we, too, wore civil dress.
The officials were unrelentingly harsh towards religious communities at the beginning of 1970. Sisters were forced to evacuate from their own establishments and convents in Ziate Moravia, Dudince, Rajecke Teplice. The provincial administration and ten other sisters were forcibly taken to Cerova from the provincial house in Trnava. This brutal evacuation began the morning of July 29, 1974, in the temporary absence of the provincial superior and her assistant. About forty men entered the convent. They broke open the locks and loaded all personal belonging and furniture on the truck. There was great turmoil on the street. When the provincial superior returned, the whole procedure was in full swing. All day long the sisters were guarded. At 6:30 in the evening they were taken by bus to Cerova.
Sisters in Cerova after 1990
New Forms of Religious Life after 1973
To accept new vocations during these times was a heroic act, not only for the superiors but also for the candidates. Young women with religious vocations came to enter the convent. New forms of religious life evolved and small communities formed with sisters employed outside convent walls.
Young sisters looked for jobs in big cities where they were less noticeable and therefore in less danger. Many worked in hospitals. This way the good news of Jesus spread, just as it did at the time of the first Christians. Small communities were formed of two or three sisters who lived together in rented rooms or apartments in large buildings. Their lives themselves were a witness as they performed their duties at the work place conscientiously and attended church services. Often they were told, “You are not an ordinary nurse,” or “You are someone special.” Even though they could not put it in words, people somehow sensed that these young women were different from others.
(L.)Sisters in the underground
Sister Oktavia Tarasovicova remembers:
Our small communities were like small fireplaces scattered all over Slovakia. I was commissioned by the provincial administration to look after these communities and visit them from time to time. Within these communities were also small novitiates. Initially we were apprehensive about whether this kind of formation was right, but Father Jozef Skoda, SVD, assured us, “Have no fear, Sisters. We live in special times and therefore God gives us special graces.” The words of Father Theodosius, too, were applicable: “The need of the times is the will of God.” Whenever I visited these sisters I had to wear secular clothes. It was a risky affair, especially when someone engaged me in conversation, as I was never sure whether I was being spied upon. The words of Psalm 91 kept re-echoing in my mind and heart: “The Lord sends his angels to protect you in all your ways.” On my journeys to visit my young fellow sisters, I always experienced that special protection of God.
With gratitude Sister Heinricha Orlicka also remembers these years:
In 1977 I began working as a nurse in the HNO Department of the University Clinic of Bratislava. We lived in small groups of two to three sisters. It was very difficult to get a private room in Bratislava, and because of circumstances we had to move twice within six months. Every Sunday we would meet in the quarters of our elderly sisters. The provincial of the Capuchins, Father Sebastian Jadud, said Mass for us and gave us spiritual direction. He was under the constant vigilance of the police and was often called for interrogations. The quarters in which we met one another was like a convent for us. A smaller room served as a chapel and a larger one as a community room, often very crowded. When the provincial superior, Sister Augustina Lapkova, came on visitation, she also wore secular dress for safety’s sake. She was pleasantly surprised to see great things flourishing in our small place.
During the week we attended Mass in the Capuchin monastery. Gradually we realized that many of those attending Mass with us were also religious in secular clothes. Sometimes I met my brother Alois, who worked in the Monotostroj Firm, there. Once he invited my mother and me for a get together, and then his superior, Father Horvatik, told us that Alois had been secretly ordained a priest of the Piaristenorder. Deeply touched, we attended his Mass and thanked God for the gift of priesthood.
Gratefully I remember the years of my service to the sick. Despite all the hardships and difficulties, I thank God that with his grace I am allowed to continue to serve him.
The “Mild Revolution”
November 1989
March 25, 1988, the so-called “Good Friday of Bratislava” was the beginning of resistance to communist rule. Thousands of people carrying burning candles gathered and walked in procession, praying the rosary, singing religious songs and praying for religious freedom. When the officials of the communist regime saw this peaceful demonstration, they ordered that the candles be put out by way of water canons. They managed to quench this manifestation, but the inhabitants of Bratislava on that day had kindled the fire of freedom, which soon spread through the whole country.
Twenty months later the communist regime collapsed, that very regime that had suppressed any protests. The real political upheaval, however, occurred on November 17, 1989, when students demonstrated in Bratislava in the same way as they had the day before in Prague. Because of the brutal suppression of such demonstrations by the government, there were strong reactions all over the country and people demanded a return to democracy. After forty years of totalitarian rule, democracy was restored to Czechoslovakia and various political parties functioned again.
Religious Now Seen in Public
After this non-violent revolution religious men and women were again welcome in society. With renewed purpose the sisters returned to the people in schools, hospitals, and other charitable establishments. In the provincial house of Cerova candidates were again admitted. On February 2, 1990, nine postulants held their vestiture ceremony and began their novitiate. Each year thereafter a new group entered the novitiate. Religious life flourished and normal conditions prevailed.
One sister, Sister Lydia Oravcova, gives witness to what it was like after the “non-violent revolution”:
On November 1, 1989, I arrived in Cerova to start my religious formation in a very big community. I recall those times gratefully. We girls in our youth and joy and mature sisters nearing the end of their lives had a very cordial relationship. I am convinced that the most impressive lessons in my formation were the suffering, helplessness and faithfulness of our aging sisters. In this atmosphere I learned to take my first steps in religious life. My transformation was due to the sisters who prayed for me, made many sacrifices for me, and gave me such an exemplary example.
After the non-violent revolution all were ready for new forms of apostolate. Because this was a challenging time with so many changes, there was a certain anxiety about how it would all turn out in the end.
Our novitiate began in Cerova, where we all lived together. The second year novices of the “underground,” who still lived scattered in small communities, joined us for the classes. It was a time of new spring and blossoming, which I experienced as a grace and gift for our community. Surely this was also the fruit of the many sorrows and persecutions that priests, religious, and laity endured during the totalitarian rule.
The History of the Four Provincial Houses
The first provincial house in Podunajske Biskupice remained the center from 1927 to 1950. In 1950 it was confiscated and served – even up to today – as a hospital for T.B. patients and those suffering from various respiratory ailments. In the time between 1969 and 1971 (the Dubcek Era) the sisters built a mini provincial house in Trnave. There the provincial administration resided until they were forced to evacuate in 1974. From 1974 to 1959 the castle of Cerova was the main house of the Slovakian Province. After the collapse of the government it became a formation house for postulants and novices. Then, after the “non-violent revolution” a fourth provincial house was erected in Trnava. The blessing and inauguration of the chapel and house took place on November 16, 1995. The sisters named it “Theresianum” after Mother Theresa Scherer, whose beatification was held on October 29, 1995. On February 15, 1996, the provincial administration moved to this new house, which remains the provincial house.
New Forms of Apostolate for Sisters After the Non-Violent Revolution
Besides the work in hospitals the sisters now could broaden their ministries to such areas as catechetical work and teaching on all levels. Religious instruction became part of the regular curriculum and again there were church-owned private schools. Our congregation opened a nursing school in Ruzomberck in the north of Slovakia.
Since 2006 Sister Terezia Benedicta Majercakova has been working with the gypsies as a social worker. Her work involves a variety of approaches involving literacy, hygiene, health care, improvement of living conditions, and employment. “Being with families living in caravans and tents and working with them is a priority,” Sister says. “To understand the gypsy people’s mentality one has to know their hearts, which are unencumbered and gay but quite unexpectedly can give way to weeping and lamentation.”
Sisters Working Outside the Slovakian Province
In 1990 Slovakian sisters went to Fagetu-Gemelcicka in Rumania to work with the Slovakian population there. For some years they also worked in Senteu-Nova Huta.
Today Sister Angelika Halcinova works in the international house in Rome. The general administration also asked for sisters to go to Russia, so in 2003 four Slovakian sisters established a mission in Perm, Russia. Another Slovakian sister, Sister Jaroslava Kutulakova, ministers as the general treasurer of the congregation at the motherhouse in Ingenbohl.
Beatification of Sister Zdenka
The most outstanding event in the history of the Slovakian Province was the beatification of Sister Zdenka Schelingova. On September 14, 2003, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Zdenka and the Greek-Catholic Bishop Vasil Hopko, who was interned with Holy Cross Sisters in Osek u Duchcova. The beatification took place in the open air. Touching was the moment when the pictures of the two beatified ones were unveiled and the antiphons were sung. The Holy Father encouraged all the faithful to fix their gaze on the Cross from which God’s love flows toward us. The two beatified ones seemed to be looking at the Cross in deep faith. Since the beatification of Sister Zdenka, the parishes have experienced a new awakening of religious spirit. The thirtieth of each month is now a pilgrimage day for Podunajske Biskupice and Trnava.
Recent Happenings
During the divine service on February 15, 2005, the 140th anniversary of the death of Father Theodosius, the new provincial, Sister Benjamina Novotna, was installed, the eighth provincial in the history of the province. The superiors of all communities were present. On November 18, 2007, the sisters celebrated the 80th jubilee of the founding of the province in Podunajske Biskupice. During that whole year the sisters lived in deep gratitude for the eighty years of the existence of the province. The nineteenth of each month was marked with a solemn Eucharistic celebration and programs in various communities.
Now the main concern of the sisters remains fidelity to Jesus Christ as their wellspring. From this fountain strength and inspiration come for their way together to spread the good news of the gospel and share their charism with the people. We thank God for everything for we know that “God will bring out good for those who love Him.”