The Communists couldn’t give us the red light
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Sister Marie Goretti Boltnarová was born on 1 January 1934 in Svatobořice near Kyjov. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II her family moved to Prague. Immediately after the liberation she started attending the nursing school of the Congregation of Sisters of St Charles Borromeo under Petřín Hill in Prague. Their sincere and committed service to God and the ill and suffering appealed to her to such an extent, that on 1 January 1949 she entered the congregation’s convent. She completed her basic education already as an aspirant. She went on to attend a secondary medical school. In 1952 the Communists closed both the convent and the congregation’s Pod Petřínem Hospital. At that time, Marie worked at a hospital in Pelhřimov; over the years she was transferred to many other locations. However, mainly to care homes and hospitals. The Communist regime tried to break the nuns’ unity by constantly moving them. Sister Marie took her solemn vows in secret on a farm in Podlesí. During the 1950s she carried secret messages into prison to Mother General Bohumila and various interned priests. She was stationed at the Home of St Charles Borromeo in Prague-Řepy. Marie Goretti Boltnarová died on March 8, 2022.