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Metod Dominik Trčka
1886-1959
Dominik Trčka was
born in Frýdlant nad Ostravici (today the Czech Republic), on 6 July 1886. He
entered the Redemptorists in 1902, was professed in 1904, and ordained in Prague
on 17 July 1910.
From the start of his
priesthood, in the Czech Republic, he began his apostolate of preaching popular
missions. During the First World War at Svata Hora, he took care of Croatian,
Slovene and Ruthenian refugees. In 1919 in answer to his request to work with
the Eastern Catholic Church, his superiors sent him to Lviv, to work among the
Greek Catholic faithful. He learned their language with the help of a confrere,
Bl. Mykolai Charnets’kyi. At that time he took the name Metod. In December 1921
he was sent to Stropkov, in Eastern Slovakia, where he founded the first mixed
Latin and Byzantine rite Redemptorist community and served as superior. He was a
zealous missionary in the Eparchies of Prešov (Prjašev), Užhorod and Križevci.
As superior he oversaw the installation of Greek Catholic Redemptorists in
Michalovce. In 1932 he returned to Stropkov to rest and do parish work. In 1935,
he returned to Michalovce where the Congregation for the Oriental Churches
appointed him Apostolic Visitor to the Basilian Sisters in Prešov (Prjašev) and
Užhorod. In Michalovce, he served a second term as superior from July 1936 to
April 1942; he completed the church, helped found a convent, set up one retreat
house and started another in the Eparchy of Užhorod. He founded an association
for women domestics, the most neglected group at the time. During the Second
World War, the Slovak State suspected the Redemptorists of anti-State
propaganda
since they were helping Ruthenians in a Slovak nationalist situation. Since Fr.
Metod was the chief suspect as superior of the house, to save the community he
resigned his post as superior. In 1945, at the end of the war, the Redemptorists
established the Vice- Province of Michalovce. Fr. Metod was appointed the first
Vice-Provincial on 23 March 1946. He encouraged the Redemptorists' re turn to
Stropkov where they worked until the Communists came to power.
In 1949 the Communists
suppressed the Vice-Province; and on the 13 April 1950 all were taken to
concentration camps, to be interrogated and tortured. Fellow prisoners said
that, to protect his confreres, Fr. Metod would take the blame and calmly endure
torture. On 12 April 1952, he was accused of collaboration with Bishop Pavel Gojdič because he spread his pastoral letters. He continued the regular reports to his superiors in Prague and through them to the ones in Rome. This was called espionage, high treason and brought him the sentence of 12 years in prison. He held out, despite ill health, trusting in God and doing His will. In April 1958 he was moved to Leopoldov prison. At Christmas he was caught singing a carol and condemned to the "correction cell" where he contracted pneumonia. Another prisoner, a doctor, asked that he be admitted to hospital, obtaining only his transfer to solitary confinement. Finally, he died in his own cell on 23 March 1959, after forgiving his persecutors. In 1969, his remains were transferred from the prison cemetery to the Redemptorists' Church of the Holy Spirit at Michalovce.
Source: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO  |
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Hagiography Circle]. All rights reserved.
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