Blessed Bishop-Martyr Dominic Methodius Trcka
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By Fr. Christopher Zugger
He entered the Roman Catholic minor seminary when he was just a boy, in sixth grade. He took his vows in 1904 and soon became inspired by the idea of the reunion of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. In 1910 he was ordained a Redemptorist priest. The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 caused great hardship in Austria-Hungary. Young Trčka worked among Greek Catholic Rusyns displaced by the fighting and so encountered the Ruthenian Church and the Byzantine Rite.
Meeting the Greek Catholics
In 1919, he took the name Methodius, in honor of the great missionary to the Slavic nations and completely abandoned the Latin Rite. “I thanked God for the grace to be allowed to offer the New Covenant Sacrifice in a Slav language and to be able to sacrifice myself for the Unity [of Churches].”
He came to eastern Czechoslovakia, establishing a foundation for the Redemptorists at a ruined church in Stropkov in 1921. The Stropkov monastery originally contained both Latin and Greek Catholic clerics, but in 1931 a purely Byzantine branch of the Order was founded at Michalovce. These Redemptorists were dedicated to not only the Greek Catholics but hoped to enter the Soviet Union as missionaries. Since that was not possible, they focused on serving in the three Ruthenian eparchies: Mukachevo, Prešov, and Križevci. Their preaching missions included sermons for an entire parish, as well as others aimed at people of all ages. Although the monks were well educated, they did not talk “down” to the village congregations and used the local languages in their sermons and confessions.
In 1935 Trčka was named the Apostolic Visitor to the Basilian Sisters in Czechoslovakia, and in 1936 he became the Superior for the new Greek Catholic monastery at Michalovce. There he built a church and worked with the Rusyn population, a practice which would cause him grief.
Slovak Republic (1938 – 1945)
The highly nationalistic government attempted to expel the Redemptorists because they were mostly Czechs who also supported of the Rusyn people against forced Slovakization, and soon because of rescue work that they conducted among Jews in 1940-44. Father Trčka tried to step aside from the public eye in 1942 to reduce the amount of pressure from the Slovak state on his Order. Bishop Gojdich held baptism ceremonies for Jews at the Michalovce monastery, which were condemned by the secret police. Trčka also worked with Father Teodor Prislak in creating forged baptismal certificates to save Jews from deportation.
Postwar
With the restoration of Czechoslovakia in 1945, the pressure was off the Redemptorists. In December 1945 the Order established the Michalovce Greek Catholic Vice-Province and in March 1946 Trčka was named as the superior. The community expanded its work in preaching missions in the parishes, promoting a publishing apostolate, and as communist propaganda increased, focused on encouraging Greek Catholic young people to hold to their faith. The future seemed bright, until the communist takeover.
The new communist regime began “inspections” of the monasteries of the Greek Catholic Church in July 1948. These were viewed with great foreboding. Trčka’s attempts to negotiate with the authorities in both Prague and Bratislava failed. The regime intended to destroy all monastic life in the entire republic. Secret policemen began recording sermons, and since he was the superior Trčka was hauled off for interrogations and accused of allowing the pulpits to be used for anti-state sermons. Once again, the Redemptorists were in the line of fire from a hostile regime.
Prison and Martyrdom
In Operation K on the night of April 13-14, 1950, all monasteries were raided, and the priests and brothers were put into different concentration monasteries. They only had on their shirts and pants, not even shoes. A survivor later wrote, “Added to it was the atrocious interrogation day and night with all the psychological and physical coercing (brutality) ways and means, which the modern communist criminology had at its disposal… In every moment, you wished you were dead instead of living.” Throughout seventy days of torture, survivors emphasized that Trčka kept up a spirit of good humor and tried to give small gifts to those being transferred to other prison sites. Others said that to protect his confreres Methodius would take the blame and calmly endure torture.
In Podolinec prison, the priests began to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. This was difficult though for the Redemptorist superior, as he could be called in at any time for more interrogations. At every call, he would simply sigh, “Lord, here I am” and then walk to the waiting car. In 1951 he was moved to Bratislava. Conditions were a little better in terms of food and being given blankets, and they were even given fish on Christmas Day. The priests were not kept together, so it was dangerous to pray out loud, and they had to pray the Office from memory or the Rosary and whispered their confessions. It was here that Father Trčka took onto himself all the suffering destined for his confreres. He continually told the interrogators that as the superior, he oversaw everything and therefore was responsible. After his conviction in 1952 of trumped-up charges of espionage on behalf of the Vatican, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison as a “reactionary priest.”
He was now much weaker, but he managed to celebrate the Liturgy frequently. He wrote to his relatives for prosphora and raisins to make wine. On April 22, 1958, he was moved to Leopoldov prison and put into a cell in the section for priests known as “the Vatican” at age 73. Because “the Vatican” used to be a dormitory for guards, the cells were former rooms that had windows that opened into the hallways.
Trčka was sitting by such a window on Christmas Eve, and there he committed his final “crime”: humming a Christmas carol, Vo Viflejemi. A passing guard recognized the tune and denounced him. He was thrown into the punishment cell, a room so small that one could not lie down in it, with a bucket as a toilet, completely unheated, with a concrete floor and a concrete block. The window was thrown open, and the priest could not close it. The only sustenance was a little bit of water and a small piece of bread every other day. He was left there to starve and to freeze, and he contracted a fatal double pneumonia.
Finally he was moved to a “regular” solitary confinement cell with the privilege of a straw mattress and a wooden floor. A jailed student obtained some penicillin for him and tried to get him to the hospital for antibiotics and decent food, but the warden refused repeatedly. As the old priest was dying, he consoled the student by telling him that he forgave those who had done this to him. Finally Trčka was moved back to the “Vatican” where he continued to suffer. In the evening of March 23, 1959, his death agony began, with four elderly priests attending him. He died that night.
Prague Spring
When the Greek Catholic Church was partially restored in 1968, permission was obtained to move his remains to the cemetery in Michalovce. Stories about his ministry and suffering kept his memory alive among the people, and he was revered as a martyr. In 1990, Czechoslovak Communism went to the grave. He was beatified on November 4, 2001, by Saint John Paul II at Saint Peter’s in the Vatican.
In his homily, Saint John Paul II said:"’Indeed, the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost’ (Lk 19,10)… Bishop Pavel Peter Gojdic and Redemptorist Father Methodius Dominic Trcka, today proclaimed Blessed, profoundly shared the saving mission proclaimed by Christ in the passage of the Gospel of Luke. They passed through the same sufferings on account of their fidelity to the Gospel and to the Successor of Peter and now they share the same crown of glory.
“…Methodius Dominic Trcka also passed his life in the service of the Gospel and of the salvation of his brothers and sisters, even to the supreme sacrifice of his life… With the support of prayer he faced with courage and determination the suffering and humiliation he had to bear on account of the Gospel. His calvary ended in the prison of Leopoldov where he died worn out by suffering and sickness, forgiving his persecutors.
“…By their example and their powerful intercession they announce the salvation that God offers to humanity in Christ. Let us learn from their witness so that we may serve God in a ‘praiseworthy way,’ walking without obstacles toward the promised goods. Amen!”