“As far as literature was concerned, we had been working with Dr Otto Mádr and Květa, his collaborator. They had been printing Brother Roger diaries as well as some religious books, pamphlets or those books in A5 format, from the ‘Duch a Život' series. We had a cyclostyle at the rectory, the one with a handle. So we would copy the texts on a typewriter, then a matrix was made, and we would print it at home. On the May Day and on several other festivities, my husband would go across the housing estate, across the square, with a cart covered with blanket, carrying the cyclostyle. And as we had two cyclostyles, one from the Strana Lidová (People´s Party), Josef Mikloško came to pick it up. He came to a mass, as it had been arranged with some people. He stated that he came to pick up the sewing machine. So we knew what´s going on and we gave him one of the cyclostyles. And we would take it to Prague by our car. A it can´t be left at Oto´s, so we would always take it somewhere else.”
“We were just sitting in the ravine, reading the letter by Brother Roger. And a man would pass by, saying: “God bless you.' We didn´t pay much attention but then we found out that there were policemen all around, that we were surrounded. And we would flee headlong in all directions. There was a priest with us, Dobromil Malý, who managed to escape. And he was happy that he had succeed, that he didn´t get in trouble. The rest of us came back after a while. Meanwhile, Stáňa Náglová, managed to hide the cross and some insignia of worship. […] So at Nágl family, we had hidden some materials with regard to Mother Theresa, these booklets printed on paper, and of course the letters and some other things. So they would take it all and put us under surveillance of sorts. And as I was saying, my husband and Luboš Nágl were interrogated, but no one had been imprisoned or sacked from work.”
“In 1975, as I got back there, someone rang the doorbell suddenly at 9PM in the evening. As I opened the door, he showed me his badge, stating he was with the Secret Police and wanted to speak with me, so I let him in. He would harass me for about an hour, wanting to know whether I know Mr Čapek from Sázava, a protestant pastor, who worked... And I would say: “I haven´t been here for long so, I didn't have a chance to meet him.” Whether I knew this or that man, I don´t know for sure whom he meant now. Then again, he would call, asking me whether he might come. And I was really scared as those had been the times of such terror and fear. I knew that if I would get in trouble, I couldn´t expect much support from my family, and I would probably end up homeless. And the Church wouldn´t offer much support as well, if I would no longer be allowed to work as a priest. So it scared me so much. Then he would call for the third time and he would even drive me somewhere. I was telling myself: 'So this is the end.' And he had forbidden me to speak about it with anyone. So I told my parents. They were horrified but gave me no advice. I told district ecclesiastical secretary who had been supervising the church. Even he acted surprised; I don´t know whether he knew about it or not.”
Světluše Košíčková was born on June 26th of 1951 in Brno to Luďek Skála and Miloslava Skálová. As a Czechoslovak Hussite Church priestess, her mother brought her up in her faith. Světluše was influenced by the life example set by her grandparents as well and by the self-sacrifice of Jan Palach. She began to study theology at the Jan Hus Czechoslovak Faculty of Theology in Prague n the year of his self-immolation and six years later, she was ordained as a priestess. She began to work as a priestess in Žďár nad Sázavou, where she was constantly harassed by the Secret police trying to force her to become a collaborator. In 1979, she was appointed a priestess in Prostějov, and after a year, she married Miloš Košíček. Together, they joined the dissent movement; ten, under the guidance of Roman Catholic priest Oto Mádr, they began to reproduce banned religious books by samizdat. In the spirit of the ecumenical community in Taizé, France, Světluše began to congregate with other believers to pray. In the spirit of Taizé, she also organised summer camps for youth with Marie Kaplanová; she attended Taizé gatherings abroad and was involved in the international cooperation between Christians. Due to their activities, Světluše and her husband were under Secret Police surveillance and her husband had been summoned for an interrogation repeatedly. In November 1989, they were participating actively in the revolution, and they didn´t cease their activities even after the fall of the totalitarian regime. In 2008, Světluše has been appointed as a priestess in Brno-Tuřany.
Her First Communion in Královo Pole in 1961; Světluše Košíčková is the second from the right, standing behind her is Miroslava Skálová, her mother and a Czechoslovak Hussite Church priest
Her First Communion in Královo Pole in 1961; Světluše Košíčková is the second from the right, standing behind her is Miroslava Skálová, her mother and a Czechoslovak Hussite Church priest
