My story

Roman Catholic priest taking care of destitute and suffering people as ministry for God. He is the leader of a civic association called RESOTY, helping homeless people reintegrate into society.

He was condemned to 12-year imprisonment and forced labour in the Jachymov mines for having tried to flee the country and for his theological studies.

"It's coming down to the wire" and everyone must write and live his/her own story by himself/herself. No more time to call our parents for advice; no more time to get hidden behind our religious or secular environment. We have too much information and everyone has a chance to make his/her choice; everyone is responsible for his/her own choice. We are the children of our epoch (a storm of information). No one can negate that people will change and correct their choices in the future, by adapting them to their experiences and to their desires.

I am a yesterday man, a veteran, obsolete; I was born in the Middle Ages.

I was born in Skalica, a city that used to be one the strongest spiritual places in the Záhorie region. It was the birthplace of many priests that ministered not only in Slovakia but also in the whole former Kingdom of Hungary. It lies in a Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish environment, at the border between the Austrian part and the Hungarian part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. This city hosted a number of emigrants after the battle of the White Mountain (1620). These different religious groups lived in peaceful relations among each other; each one of them had its own space. Catholic families lived according to the principle of loyalty to tradition and obedience to authority.

My parents were peasants, they had seven children and they educated all of us with profound reverence to God, mutual responsibility, and honest work. Religious education was included in all elements of our everyday life. Short morning prayer, prayer before eating, Sunday prayers also after eating, observance of holidays, rigid observance of Sundays, Friday fast, God worship, reverence to "holy pictures", devotion towards the Name of God, and above all respect for people. This is the way I and my siblings were grown up and lived. It was enough energy for the rest of our lives. It was not like that in all families.

This traditional religious based family education would probably be enough for me in order to assure good future life; nevertheless, I have another event to tell you. It was on All Saints' Day, when people go to cemeteries. I was about 13 years old. My Slovak language teacher was preparing a small celebration with a programme, just before the entrance to the cemetery. My task was reciting a poem of our national poet Hviezdoslav: Bloody Sonnets. It was a sunny and cold day; wind was blowing from the north. Our academy event ended without surprises; we went to the cemetery and then I think I went with some friends to visit churches. The visits in each single church were associated to full indulgences that we had to offer to the souls in the Purgatory.

I entered the Franciscan church, and I was more or less close to the second right row from church entrance. In the church it was warm - silence everywhere.

During prayer I experienced something like enlightenment. It was as though I got lost. It was something like light, blessing, and a sense of happiness. It filled all my inside. I woke up and everything was the same as before; but I was changed.

Začal som sa viac modliť, naučil som sa miništrovať, rád som chodil do kostola, čítal som I started to pray more than before, I became a good altar boy, I was going to the holy masses with great joy, I was reading religious books and magazines. All of a sudden, I exactly knew what I wanted to be: a priest. I made all possible efforts to reach this goal. I started to study more and more. I was totally convinced. My parents registered me at the Salesian seminar in the town of Šaštín. Here I studied in the local high school; then the novitiate followed; and I finally was bound by vows to live a life of religious worship and service.

Faith and love for Jesus and for his cause filled all my heart and I was ready to offer my life for this.

Back then, there were many male and female missionaries leaving Slovakia to reach various mission destinations. My first desire was to follow them; I wanted to dedicate all my life to Christ and I wanted to bring him to "poor pagan souls". I was getting ready to do that. I started to learn foreign languages; we lived in conditions of radical poverty; and I felt healthy. God always makes our dreams come true, but in a different way than we dream of.

In 1950 I was 21 years old. It was the year in which the Communists liquidated all religious order houses. They transferred us to the so called Youth Dam; they tried to politically re-educate us and to make us proselytes of their socialist cause. They promised us many benefits and privileges, if we abandoned our proposal of spreading the Kingdom of God and we started building their Communist system.

I remained loyal to my original goal. I decided to illegally flee my country. They caught me when I was crossing the borders and they condemned me to 12-year imprisonment for attempting to illegally leave the country and for attending theology courses. I spent ten years in jail, most of them in the uranium mines of Jachymov.

I wanted to be a missionary; the mission field was opening up before me. Life conditions were very hard and cruel, together with thousands of other detainees. Some of them were political prisoners and many of them were being punished because of moral violations. It was a "tailor made" society for mission.

If you want to be an apostle, you have to give the right example. Work, humbleness, humility, prudent objections, but above all "faith" - the faith you have to possess within your soul, notably when you are living in the Purgatory. I was living my faith every day. I was living with love and without hatred. I was taking up my friends' burden - my friends who were fighting for surviving.

I was helping, in order to have fewer punishments and more peace and tranquillity. If this is not possible in the prison camp, it must be possible at least in our hearts. We were living with God. When waiting for transport service in cold bus stop during the winter, I tried to breathe deeply - I tried to stop breathing at least for a minute and get warmed in the presence of Jesus who dwells inside me. Religious language acquired new words. First of all, acts of real friendship and willingness to share everything. Being with people without getting tired and showing them (only through my being) that God is present among us.

Even after jail, I always declared my faith. Not in an ostentatious way, not by manifesting... But with humbleness, like a man who wants to help the world - a world that was suffering a lot and fighting for its freedom. Faith is not a question of creed and church membership any more. It is rather a question of obedience to God things. What we need is cooperation with people of good will and faith. We have to understand that each one of us has a different road to follow. Each one of us has a different degree of knowing God. After all, faith is a gift from God. Grace. Thank you, Lord, for the courage of developing one's own talents, time, space. It is gift before which we shall always rejoice, for us and for the others - for other people with whom we share our experiences. The religious dimension becomes profoundly human. The most beautiful, true, genuine things I have inside me are becoming religious. Jesus is the main character. Without him all my efforts would be vain and useless.

Anton Srholec, April 2013