God is the strength you will know when you hurt
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Božena Šimáková was born in Mašov near Příbram on 18 December 1921. During World War II, she worked as a governess with a wealthy Prague family, and went to the St Ignatius Church of the Jesuit order. She confided to one of the local priests that she was attracted to mission work. He arranged for her to be admitted to the Irish-based Medical Missionaries of Mary congregation. Aged 26, she left for Ireland in 1947 and joined the order. She adopted the religious name Adalbert. Initially, she worked at the order’s hospital. Then, instead of an African mission, she went to the papal nunciature in Dublin and took care of the nuncio’s household. She left for the UK with the next nuncio and spent three decades at the nuncianture in London. In addition to the papal diplomatic environment, she got to know the London community of Czech catholic exiles around Father Jan Lang. She studied in Rome in the early 1980s and became the housekeeper for Bishop Jaroslav Škarvada in 1982. After the Velvet Revolution, she returned to her homeland with Bishop Škarvada and managed his estate after his death in 2010. She has stayed in the Czech Republic for good, and was living in Prague in 2021.
