“Those were also interesting moments when I handed in my notice after the beginning of the new year in 1990 to join something which I knew nothing about; everything we would do and how we would do it was completely unknown. We expected we would work in the factory until retirement, (we expected) to be underground, to be a connection, to simply live our lives and through it to sanctify the church and the world. And all of sudden, everything was different. I know that those last two or three months were intense also in the factory, in MEZ in Židětice where I worked as a designer. Although I had a lot of work and it was demanding because back then I was just drawing on the drawing board with a well-cut pencil mould for die-casting, quite large. It was not in the computers, it was all in my head, I had to be very focused on that. And on top of that, the changes were happening and people who could, people from various offices invited me to have a coffee with them and to chat. And many of them were surprised and pleased even though they did not understand (it) at all, but it felt extraordinary that they had a monk among themselves. For example, when they invited me to their office, one of the colleagues told me: ‘Honza, how come you are a monk when you keep smiling all the time, it does not make sense to us?!‘”
“Then we went on military training. Somewhere, I can no longer remember its name, it was nearby Bratislava. I know that it was really cold there, a cold wind was blowing. Our commander lined us up and was explaining us all the things you have to do when you are throwing a grenade. I was on the edge and the wind was blowing and I did not hear anything. Well and then they went, one after the other, to a bunker, they got a grenade there and threw it, one after the other. And then I also went there, I knew that I would get a grenade, that I was to pull the pin and throw it, which I understood from that. So, I took it in my left hand, I ripped something off it, a strip, and I wanted to take it in my right hand to throw it and the commander which was standing by me, took the grenade, threw it and it exploded in the air. It was just a second, like that, he saved his life and mine as well. Because I ripped off the whole system and I wanted to throw it with my right hand because I did not understand which hand to hold it in and also because I am right-handed. And several things like this one took place there and I did not go to any other training since that time. And when they went somewhere, they sent me to serve in the kitchen.”
“It was interesting for example between Christmas holidays. Our officers behaved in such a way we did not go wild, so it was on festive days, in the middle of Christmas when everyone was free, but we were not, our company still had to do the foot drill, back and forth, to sing, and so on. All the young men there, all the soldiers were swearing and frowning. And our commander could not stand it anymore in the evening and said: ‘Private Dohnal, why are you still smiling?‘ I said: ‘It is in my nature.‘ - ‘Something else is in your nature. March harder!‘ Then I found out that he was provoked that everyone else´s spirit had been broken and he could not manage to break me.”
“Well, I took a holiday, I went to a spiritual retreat before the priestly ordination. And the priestly ordination was scheduled sometime in June, and I was supposed to go on a spiritual retreat before it. And the interesting thing was that during that week I was absent, communists organized a special training concerning the fact that the church had a lot of secret bishops and priests and that it was necessary to pursue the matter a lot. That is why all the communists from our factory had a meeting. An instructor from the management came and gave everyone a rousing lecture saying that in case they noticed anything suspicious at work, they were to report it immediately to the management and that they could not let it be, and so on. And of course, there were some communists in our big team of twelve co-workers, including our boss. And when they returned from the meeting, they sat down together and talked about the topics that had been mentioned. Oldřiška [a co-worker who knew about the witness´s secret membership in the religious order], who was next door was dying laughing. However, it was nice that they were talking about it and said: ‘It could be our Honzík, right?‘ So they mentioned me in connection with this, but nobody reported me to anyone, not even my boss. And we were friends with everyone, and I felt that my boss, although he probably already knew many things, protected me."
Jan Dohnal was born on 13 October 1955 in the small town of Hluk in the region of Moravian Slovakia. Since his childhood, he had a really strong family background, and his hard-working, selfless, religious, and open parents were his role models. A fellowship that he with his friends founded during his teenage years played an important part in deepening his faith. He started to consider becoming a priest under the influence of encounters with extraordinary priests. He passed the secondary school-leaving exam at Evening Secondary Industrial School which he attended after having become a machine operator in Autopal Hluk. He joined military service as a candidate of the illegal Franciscan Order, which he joined in 1980 under the name Jan Vianney. The life of the monastic order was completely hidden. The brethren had civilian professions and lived according to Franciscan rules after work. Brother Vianney attended and graduated in secret theological studies and in 1988 received secret priestly ordination at the hands of Bishop Peter Dubovský. After the Velvet Revolution, he worked in Franciscan parishes in Bohemia and Moravia. From 2000 to 2009 he was elected Provincial Minister of the Franciscans. He has been the Spiritual of the Archbishop Seminary in Prague since 2021.
