“So they took both mimeographs, all typewriters and obviously, those books. But, they came back, about four of them, that they decided that during the search… that a treasure had been found there, a bathtub full of gold, that children of our Republic could live off all that, there would be bread for them for the whole year. And that they had found a printing press, for the Solidarność, some of those Solidarność members, you know, then, Solidarność. was starting in Poland and after all, they were worried about that. And they arrived after the search and wanted to see the treasure. I kept telling them: ‘Please, you couldn’t have seen any gold treasure here, you went everywhere, you saw everything. Now it’s after the search, we even… just leave now.’ And they insisted so I eventually said: ‘Come on in and have a look.’ And, just in the hallway where there was the entrance to the choir, there was a cupboard, ordinary cupboard with an ordinary lock where there were two or three chalices, an ostensory and a pyxis. It came from some other house when the sisters moved, it either stayed there or they took it with them.
The state functionaries had an expert who would go, with such a disdain: ‘Well, this is not old, but if the sisters…. They could make it look like it were from I don’t know what century.’ Simply, they always strove for a way how to hurt one, how to crush one. And they were very eager to look to the crypt under the church where there is a small casket full of bones which were exhumed from the cemetery when the Nechranice dam was being filled. Indeed, some of the villages were flooded so some priests’ bones were buried in the little casket and stored in the crypt. So they nagged that it’s sisters’ children. We went through our share of trials and tribulations but but everything will end someday and the Lord is eternal.”
“’Assemble in one room and bring the illegal prints!’
I then said: ‘We do not have any illegal printed matter. We have a permit to print out breviary and that is what we do but we do not have any illegal prints.’
‘Well, assemble then.’
‘We assembled in what we called the meeting room, there were two sofabeds in case there were visitors who needed to stay overnight. So they cut off our contact with the outside world. But then the manager was in his office and his wife worked in an inn somewhere by the Prunerov electricity plant and he heard from her that people dropped by in that inn and asked: ‘What is going on there in the convent? There are so many National Security Corps or Public Security (Note: NSC included both the State Security or secret police and Public Security or uniformed officers, the latter was used interchangeably with NSC.) with that many cars.’ So, she telephoned her husband’s office and, ‘What she wanted?’ the guards asked right away. ‘Erm, well, my wife asked why there are several cars here.’ And then they cut us off from the outside world immediately.
And then in that room again, there lay two sisters, who lay there, obviously, because they were sick. And they wanted us to bring out the pamphlets, the printed matter, we had already said that we had nothing. ‘So, well, then, we will search the building.’ So we said: ‘But, let us ask you not to go there on your own. We want to witness it.’ Then we divided into, I think, three groups, two sisters and two of those guts because we knew that they could plant something in any place, pamphlets or some weapon and then there would be investigation, we had been already interrogated and imprisoned. So, what came first. They started opening cupboards and drawers, they even looked under the beds and behind the wardrobes. And they started to pull the books out and throw them around. We kept only those books that were for a given liturgical period in the church because those books were printed on office paper, and we couldn’t keep all that in the church. What was not needed, that was what we kept in our room. So we said ‘Please do not take this away, we talked about that, we have a permit from Prague for that.’ - ‘Erm, well, I will ask.’ He went away for a while. ‘Everything, we’re taking everything.’ They took even the smallest typed or mimeographed piece of paper. They took away my mimeographed book which I got when I was a novice. And there were trucks taking it away, there were over 90 sisters so it was quite an amount of books!”
“On that 27th September [1950], after midnight, the last Holy Mass was celebrated in our chapel in Bojkovice. Then we got on the bus. They told us that we do not need to bring anything with us, only personal belongings, that everything is ready there for us, that we are going to Bohosudov. We didn‘t trust them much, though, at that time, it was widely rumoured that in Russia, they banish the nuns to Siberia, so we were not sure at all where we were going.”
"So I enrolled in the Trade School for Ladies’ Vocations. That's how my relationship with Him deepened. I was in my second year and I took a liking in sisters' life. I started thinking about becoming one of them. My parents disagreed, though. During the last school holiday, they sent me to Bratislava where we had an aunt. They thought I would change my mind. I insisted that I wanted to join a convent. At the end, dad told me to do what I wanted. I was disappointed, I loved it at home. Our home was peaceful, we liked each other. I don't know why they disagreed so much because we were a religious family. We prayed together for example. So I started packing and went to catch my train. I arrived to Bojkovice and so I joined the sisters. It was in February 1948 when the Communists were winning."
“In 1981, the Commies had power and courage enough to do a big house search in our house in Kadaň. It was shortly after the noon, a sister came running to me and told me to come downstairs, that there is a plenty of people in the convents. Even dogs are here. I went downstairs and I saw that there were some men pacing there and back in the clausure. I asked what was going on. A woman stepped forward, she looked like an SS officer, she had a leather coat, tight trousers, high boots, it was October. She ordered [that we sisters] assemble. Then they told us that we hand over all illegal prints. I said that there were none, that we do have a mimeograph on which we copy the liturgy of hours, that is, the breviary, but it was permitted by the Prague church office. At least we told them we insist that a sister or two join them because we had already known that they plant some weapons somewhere, or something, and then there are exemplary processes and that. The Public Security [police] cars were parked in front of the convent. There was a plenty of those books they took away. I was questioned as well, they said that they could well coerce me and that I would speak otherwise. I told them that they should not do that, that it will bring no good to them. That all the sisters here are elderly, they had worked hard all their lives and often cared for the poorest of the poor. And now, in their old age, they should be left in peace, without being harassed like this. That’s how they treated us. And one of those whispered, I heard that, he said ‘I’ll be so glad to get out of this house.’ At the end, he did have a pang of conscience.”
"In 1950, the news about the men’s convents being dispersed and the brothers being banished reached us [sisters] in April. So, our superiors sent me to Bojkovice in the Uherské Hradiště area. When the Communists closed the school there, there were toddlers and orphans left. Our superiors thought that it would save us when we would care for the children. But about two days before the 27th September 1950, we were already encroached. Sister we nt to work in the field but she had to return and we weren’t allowed to leave any more. In the chapel, they read to us that we are called off, the house is not maintained as it should be. We went to pack our personal belongings. At that time, there were news that in Russia, they are banishing nuns to Siberia so we were unsure about what could future bring and whether we would remain in our country. The 27th September of 1950 came, at midnight, we had our last Holy Mass in the Bojkovice chapel and then the chapel remained empty. We got on a bus and off we went, always under surveillance. It took quite a time, we were already in Bohemia, it was getting dark and we waited for quite some time in a forest. Only when it was almost dark, we went on so that we would arrive to Bohosudov at night.”
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Klášter sester dominikánek v Praze v Černé ulici, 17.07.2017
photo: dobové foto: archiv pamětnice, současné foto: Marie Mrvová
photo: dobové foto: archiv pamětnice, současné foto: Marie Mrvová
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Emilie Slavomíra Měřičková was born on the 17th of November in 1930 in Svatá Sidonie [Saint Sidonia] in the White Carpathians as the youngest of three siblings. She apprenticed as a ladies’ and children’s dressmaker in the Trade School for Ladies’ Vocations in Bojkovice where the Dominican Sisters taught. It was due to their influence that she decided for consecrated life. While the Communists were celebrating their victory in a coup in 1948, the witness entered a convent in Olomouc – Řepčín and joined the Dominican Sisters. In May 1950, she was sent to Bojkovice where she cared for toddlers and orphans and on the 27th September 1950, she witnessed the infamous Operation Ř [Ř stands for řeholnice – professed nun or Sister] – the forced closure and disbandement of ladies’ convents in Czechoslovakia. The communists forcibly removed the sisters to the other end of the country, to Bohosudov. They were under constant surveillance and had to work in the Vrchoslavy Screw Factory. In 1951, another forced move followed, this time to Varnsdorf where Sister Slavomíra had to work in a stocking factory.
In February 1952, she was removed again, from Varnsdorf to Dolní Lanov. From here, she commuted to Horní Staré Město near Trutnov to the Texlen factory and later [she moved] to Maršov 4. About half a year later, the witness was moved again, to Svoboda nad Úpou and then to Broumov where spe spent a year and half baking the host wafers. From Broumov, she was transferred to Buchlovice where she spent twenty years working as a caretaker in a retirement home. Meantime, she studied at a nurses’ school in Uherské Hradiště. In 1981, she was sent to Kadaň where she witnessed a major house search whose aim was to find alleged illegal prints and a stash of gold hidden in a bathtub. Sister Slavomíra was interrogated and for several years, she kept being summoned to various court hearings. In 1987, she was sent from Kadaň back to Broumov and then to Valašské Meziříčí for half a year. In 1989, she went to Rome to see the canonisation of Saint Agnes of Bohemia. In August 1990, she left for Bojkovice with several other Sisters where they helped with reopening the girls’ school. In 1993, she arrived to Brno, she used to sing morning laudes in the Proglas Radio. Between 1992 – 2004, she was the Superior General of the whole Czech congregation of Dominican sisters. From 2008 on, she has been living in Prague.
Postulants in Bojkovice.
Top row: Bertranda, Emilie-Slavomíra, Karola, a postulant who later left, Marietta, Bohdanka. Bottom row: Beáta, another postulant who left, left, headmistress, sister Pavlína, teacher, sister Alena, Josefa and Julietta.
Postulants in Bojkovice.
Top row: Bertranda, Emilie-Slavomíra, Karola, a postulant who later left, Marietta, Bohdanka. Bottom row: Beáta, another postulant who left, left, headmistress, sister Pavlína, teacher, sister Alena, Josefa and Julietta.
