"We reckoned that we could be ordained, even if we wouldn´t work in the spiritual administration or in parishes. But we were counting on it, even from our order from the Slovak province, there were three secret bishops who had been secretly ordained, mainly because bishops were imprisoned or guarded, so those were given the authority to consecrate others and our older theologians, who were almost ready for ordination. But I was not ordained at the time, and I also wanted to be ordained secretly, but the Father Provincial said, 'But wait, you have to study it properly, you wouldn't enjoy it much if you didn't have proper studies.' So the one who didn't ask a provincial superior, he had himself secretly ordained. We also had several fathers who had been ordained in prison."
"Interestingly, no decree existed anywhere stating the dissolution of orders. It´s interesting, they always used to argue that we continued to live in the religious community, trying to live and prepare for the priesthood. At the same time, the order wasn´t dissolved, and when we were being arrested, they said that they wanted to put us together so that we could experience our religious consecration properly. So it was all upside down."
"We were ready soon, in an hour. Of course, they were reading us one by one to see if we were all present. We had to move from one side to the other so that they would not get confused. So that no one would report someone [else]. We took our things. They were standing by each of us, and when we were putting [things] there, they were watching us and they said: You don't need this, don't put it there, don't take it. So a lot of things which fathers were packing were taken away, because they [officers] liked some things which could be useful for them, right? We each had a small case, we went downstairs and we were said, 'Well, let's get on.' It was about one o'clock in the morning."
"So we got on two buses. Three uniformed armed officers went to the front as an escort. And they told us, I think, that in two, three hours we'll be there. We then went through Brno, we told ourselves that they would put us in Špilberk anyway. But we weren´t really depressed or sad about it, but it was at Easter time, and one kept saying and repeating, 'Haec Dies, quam feccit dominus, exultemus et letemur in ea, Alleluia.' This is a day which Lord made for us. Let us be glad and rejoice in it, so that we could suffer something for Christ. And that sounded all the way, otherwise we weren't allowed to talk to each other, neither in the refectory nor in the bus. We got on it and we were not even allowed to pray together. That the bus would be going and we would be praying the rosary. No, no. Everything was in silence, so it was all particularly mysterious and such a strange atmosphere. "
"When the raid happened we were sleeping, no one had a clue, and at about half past ten suddenly the whole house was bustling and the armed uniformed [security officers] and their helpers came to our dormitory. They stopped at every bed. We had a dormitory bigger than this. In one dormitory there was no space enough, so a wide corridor had been turned into a dormitory. And we were separated from each other by a linen cloth. They drew it aside and said: Get up, get dressed, and gather in the refectory – the dining hall."
Stanislav Peroutka was born on September 21, 1933 in Krumvíř, district of Břeclav. The parents were petty farmers and made a living by working on a state farm. Immediately after the war,at the age of twelve, Stanislav began studying at the Jesuit Pontifical Institute in Velehrad. Here he became member of the Scout unit, led by Father Janíček. However, he experienced the firm order and demanding studies at the Jesuit boarding school only until 1949. After finishing the fifth year, he entered the novitiate. On the night of April 13-14, 1950, he and other seventy brothers were forced to gather and were taken to Bohosudov. He spent two months in involuntary internment and then, together with other novices, he was transported “to be re-educated” to Hájek near Prague. After another two months, they ended up building the Klíčava dam in the Křivoklát region. After being released in October 1950, he took a job in Brno-Slatina as a worker and in the evenings he completed his education studying a grammar school for workers, from which he graduated in 1954. He joined the basic military service in Slovakia in the village of Nováky, district of Prievidza, but spent most of time as a member of the Auxiliary Engineering Corps in Bohemia - in Bechyně near Tábor, Čáslav, Dobronín and Líny. After the war, he returned to Brno and found work in the wood company TOS, where he worked as a draftsman in the construction department. In connection with the trials of other clergymen, State Security interrogated him several times, and in December 1959 he was arrested. Together with other Jesuit priests, he was sentenced to five years in prison for subverting the republic and connection with the Vatican. He spent the detention and the subsequent period until the legal effectivity of the judgement in Brno-Bohunice. However, thanks to the amnesty of May 1960, he was soon released. He had problems getting a job for some time, until he finally got a place in the Brno ground construction company. In September 1968, he travelled to Vienna and then to Innsbruck, where he completed his theological education at university and was then ordained a priest. He returned to the republic at the end of 1970. At first, he was not granted state approval to perform priestly service. He therefore worked as an assistant chaplain and only later, after obtaining state approval in 1972, he cared for several parishes on the South Moravian border as a priest. In 1990 he moved to the Olomouc diocese. He took part in the Thanksgiving national pilgrimage to Rome in 1992, when he also personally met the Pope John Paul II. He went to Velehrad to retire. Stanislav Peroutka died on March 2, 2021.
