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Jozef Hrdý (1923)

Foto: Jozef Hrdý

Biography

“Everything having a beginning also has an end. We began and thus we have to end“

Jozef Hrdý was born on April 10, 1923 in the village of Veľké Ostratice into a small peasant’s family. The idea to become a priest came to his mind in a very unusual way - his passion for sports and particularly football played an important role. Therefore he decided to study at the Salesian grammar school in Šaštín, where he could pursue his hobby. Then, he studied pedagogy in Trnava and in the meantime he spent a year of novitiate in Svätý Beňadik monastery. He was still in Trnava when the end of war came and the Red army arrived in Sovakia. Shortly afterwards, he was sent to Bratislava, part Trnávka, later to the Salesian church on Miletičova Street. He devoted himself to the apostolate, organised altar servers, taught religious education at the public elementary school, and was responsible for sports in Bratislava, part Ružinov. However, the year 1948 came and the situation of priests and monks became more and more serious. Soon, Ľudovít Macák came to visit him and told him about the plan to organise the escape of seminarians to Italy, where they were possibly allowed to study theology and become priests. After the first failed attempt in august 1949, he attempted to cross the border along with his friend and other refugees on the night of December 22 to December 23, 1949. This time their attempt was successful. They found themselves in the Soviet occupation area in Austria; however, they managed to arrive in Vienna, where they got papers from an international organization for refugees. Thanks to the assistance from many peasants, they managed to arrive in Italy, to Turin at the beginning of the year 1950. They enrolled at the university and started studying immediately. Jozef Hrdý was ordained a priest in July 1953. However, the fact that Jozef had been wanted by the State Security was brought into the open, so the superiors decided to send him to South America in 1953, actually to Punta Arenas near Tierra in Chile, to Santiago, and later to Bolivia, where he spent the next four decades of his life. He devoted particularly to the work with youth and he considerably contributed to the development of an agricultural school in Linares. However, several years later, he had to face the consequences of various deals, which he had made, as he said, at the instigation of other people and allegedly he even hadn’t known what he had been signing. Investigation of frauds, due to which he was also wanted by Interpol, as well as the criminal trial took several years. At the beginning of 1990s he came back to Slovakia. Here he worked as a financial manager, but mainly he continued working with young people. He is spending the afternoon of his life in Šaštín.

Arrival of the Red Army

“When Russians came. You know, they had their own extremes, it is well known as ‘Take away times!’ People were stealing, but Russians respected us as priests and monks, really respected and they were even ordered to behave fairly to us, right? They did various things in public, disturbances, mainly in Pezinok and its neighbourhood, where people made that delicious wine. However, they were very polite to us, we couldn’t complain. Only later, though I don’t think it was their but some of our enemies initiative, they ran us out of the institute. Then, we all had move to Kopánka overnight. The Russians came later and established their secret service there. We witnessed it later as we saw the names of offices written on the doors in those Russian letters. When we came back later, it was a disaster. They left there.”
“Havoc.”
“It took a week until we cleaned everything after them, particularly toilets and halls; everything was dirty and written all over. It was a disaster indeed.”

The Way across the Morava River I

“We left house on December 22, 1949 at half past seven. I wasn’t alone, there was also… The fiancée of Hinduliak, the notable player, went with us, then an astronomer, an advocate from the eastern Slovakia, we were seven altogether. Of course, there was also Jožo and a girl, they worked together, and one young boy. Actually, we were ten. We came to the river at about twelve, or it was half past twelve at night when we arrived there. From there we headed for Vienna. We walked; we went on foot on both sides of the river. Mud was everywhere, it was raining and then it started to freeze, so when I came to Vienna, it was cold and snowy at Christmas.”

The Way across the Morava River II

“It was dark, absolute dark. It was in winter and there was a lot of mud. It means, you know, it was raining when we came to the border, to the Morava River. There we had a rest, but Jožo went a bit further, they had a boat hidden there, such inflatable one. They had to inflate it, right? They did it, but it took a long time as it was a bigger boat, so that we all could get on in. However, everyone had his own stuff. They worked there and in the meantime we were watching everything and we were really tired because we had to walk from half past seven to twelve, half past twelve at night. Then the boat was prepared. On one side, we also waited for the police or something like that, border guards probably, but nobody appeared. We were hidden everywhere there, but not in groups of two or three, everyone had to be alone. Later, when he came for us, only then we met and went for it. After coming to the other bank of the river, we could finally rest. But do you know what happened? It was a Russian zone, which was much worse than being in Slovakia. Then Jožo told us, ‘Now it will be the worst. It means that Russians are here, so you have to be really careful.’”

In the Russian Occupation Zone

“That day came, it was in the morning. We went to the station and wanted to catch the express train to Linz and further. We were supposed to get off the train in Linz. But then something unexpected happened. The train stopped near the Inn River. The military appeared and Russian soldiers got control of the train. And the worst thing was that we were sitting in the first car, it was the worst. And do you know why? It actually meant that they started to check the train from the back. And it was crowded as there was no other way and trains were going from one zone to another. We had been waiting there for two hours until the Russians came. Can you imagine those nerves? Tenseness. Would they catch us? Wouldn’t they? We waited for control or something like that. Or the documents we had, they were just the cheap ones and the like. Then the Russians came. The came, knocked, and entered. They spoke Russian, not German at all. The documents, it was an international word, so we handed them in and they were looking at them. We also had a clerical collar. We intentionally procured the collars, so as they saw them, because we knew that Russians respected such things. Then, the train started to move, after two hours. When we were somewhere in the middle of the Inn River, I lost my nerves. My nose started bleeding, so I was looking for some handkerchief. My feelings were relieved by that bleeding. When we arrived at the station, my friend only took a seat there and even didn’t know where he was. We were sitting there, it was cold and freezing. We spent there almost two hours and didn’t feel the cold, we felt nothing. We only were happy, we felt like when a deceased man goes to heaven.”

World of Tierra del Fuego

“It was three thousand kilometres away, so we travelled the whole day. We arrived in Punta Arenas. It was in May, I remember such a strong wind that I even didn’t want to get off the plane. Really strong wind, at that time I didn’t know it, but later I came to know that those winds usually blow with a speed of 80 to 150 kilometres per hour. I didn’t see any buildings covered with roofing tiles or the like. There was sheet metal screwed on the roofs of all houses, churches, and all buildings. I came to the presbytery of Cristo Obrero, Christ the Worker. The manse was all made of wood. It swayed in the wind. I only said myself that it wasn’t a good beginning, but it wasn’t important at all. As soon as we arrived we went to check in. In the neighbourhood, actually very close to us, there was the Salesian Institute of Don Bosco, so we usually went for breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. I pursued sports there. Of course, I didn’t speak Spanish at all. We lived right opposite the school. And pupils often came to help me or to play football instead of going to school, either in the morning or in the afternoon, so we became friends. In a month a built up such a luxurious youth centre of all interests, sports, everything was well organised. We made playrooms there and an area manager bought us a ping-pong table, table football, and the like. Playground, basketball.”

Grace of Dominic Savio

“It was Saturday, so they came to christen. The christening was very interesting, because a mother came with cry. She was with my friend, Kristínka. She was only seven years old and she was going there every day, she was there in the morning, in the afternoon, she was helping me there. She also taught me Spanish. All right. Then, I came and I saw a newborn baby, who was totally blue. Not blue, the baby was almost black. And Kristínka came to ask me to christen the baby. So I went and dressed myself, christened the baby and suddenly I recalled something. I was christening, all in Latin, of course. And then… Wait! ‘Wait here!’ I remembered that once I was present in Rome at beatification of Dominic Savio. I had pictures with Dominic Savio’s photo. I put the pictures there and said myself that I had to cure the baby. As soon as I brought the pictures there, the baby started to smile. You know, the baby was losing the colour and his/her father had already gone to buy a coffin. And do you know what happened? Can you imagine it? I was canonised there right the next day. Then, all the sick children were visiting me. And everything turned out well.”

Holy Masses Broadcasted on TV

“Then I started with the modern masses. I even have my songs here. So I started with the youth masses, very nice, fantastic. And when all those old women saw that it was electronic, everything was moving there, they were offended. And then… I had to close the church door and also the old women started attending the youth masses. Then, I let them sit in the back seats near the door, but not in the front part of the church. Later, in the state television learnt about my masses and asked me for permission to broadcast it on television at least once a month. Of course, the catholic television was a bit better than the state one, so I wondered why they didn’t asked me as well. Then, every month at least two of our masses were broadcasted on television.”

Golden Age on Miletičova Street

“I would call those times on Miletičova Street the golden era of my life. The altar servers, girls, Hlinková, youth mass, or Jožko Luscoň, or all those masses. It was really enviable, such well organised it was. Now, I don’t know, it is in other people’s hands. They do their best as we did in the past, but I thank God that I was able to do something. Especially I thank people, who contributed in some way to us, so as we could make it work and develop on Miletičova Street. We wanted to prove that our youth, our people, Christians really fancy doing the good; they have joy and real love in them. I saw the peace in their hearts; I saw their enjoyment of life. They openly expressed their enjoyment. It gave me the biggest satisfaction. And I would wish all people who contributed somehow to be blessed by God with all the gifts and favours they need in their everyday life.”

Výpoveď tohto pamätníka bola spracovaná a publikovaná vďaka finančnej podpore EÚ v rámci programu Európa pre občanov – Aktívna európska pamiatka.

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