Blessed Bishop-Martyr Pavel Peter Gojdic
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By Fr. Christopher Zugger
He was sent to the theological faculty in Budapest in 1908. When the time came for ordination to diaconate, he surprised his family by declaring himself as a candidate for the celibate priesthood as he wanted to give himself entirely to God.
Priesthood
He was soon marked for a successful career in the Church. In 1919 he was named the chancellor for Prešov eparchy and was already bein
g spoken of as a future bishop in the new country of Czechoslovakia.
In 1922, he shocked the clergy and his family when he gave up all talk of a career and entered the Basilian Order, which had begun a major reform of its life and work. He entered the Saint Nicholas monastery in Mukachevo in the humble roles of being a postulant and then a novice, just as any beginner in the ascetical life would. He wrote to his parents that he most definitely did not want the episcopal rank or the office of a Canon, as he saw himself as being unworthy. He was given the name Paul in 1923 as a professed monk; he now bore the names of the two great apostles.
He soon proved himself a successful and popular missionary whose sermons inspired wavering Greek Catholics to stay in their Church and new Orthodox converts to return to it. To his own dismay, Paul Peter was named the apostolic administrator of the eparchy; he arrived in Prešov in 1927, still hoping that he could avoid this burden. In his homily he emphasized that he had not sought out this office, and that he came to serve as “a doctor for your wounds … your teacher of truth and interpreter of the joyful gospel… I will try to be all things to everyone.”
On March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, he was consecrated bishop in Saint Clement Basilica in Rome and Pope Pius XI received the young bishop in an audience in which he exhorted Bishop Gojdič to stand firm, prophetically telling him, "do not hesitate, if need be, to shed your own blood in defense of the Holy Union." In yet another symbolic moment, the pope presented Bishop Gojdič with a metal cross to wear, as a sign "of all those heavy crosses that the good Lord will deign to place upon your shoulders." The bishop wore that cross until his arrest in 1950 and often meditated on that prediction while he was in prison.
Spirituality
“How happy I am that I can belong entirely to God!”
As a seminarian in Budapest, he spent much of his free time praying in the chapel before the Eucharistic Christ. This became a daily practice until his arrest in 1950. His life of prayer and fasting fortified him for the fierce struggles he would endure. While working in his office, he was known for taking breaks from his routine to pray silently in church in front of the Most Holy Eucharist. He recited the Office of Matins and the Hours and made a point of reciting the Holy Rosary every day, usually all fifteen mysteries. At night he made a long visit to Christ in the Eucharist again before retiring at midnight.
Slovak Nationalism and the Greek Catholic Church
Czechoslovakia was much more religious than Bohemia, with a vibrant Catholic Church, both Greek and Latin, along with strong Lutheran and Reformed Churches, and religious Jews. Father Andrej Hlinka founded the Slovak People's Party which carried 40% of the Slovak vote. Priests were active in the party, which called for greater autonomy for Slovakia and an end to Prague’s anti-Catholic attitudes. The slogan "One God, One People, One Party" reflected Roman Catholic beliefs mixed with a worsening authoritarian trend after the Munich Crisis of 1938 which destroyed the Czechoslovakian state. A radical, anti-Jewish wing began looking to Nazis in Germany despite Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XI's fierce condemnation of the Nazis in 1937. Father Josef Tiso became the leader of both the HLS'S and Slovakia.
The new state closed the 65 Ruthenian-language grammar schools, the Eparchial high school, and all Ruthenian-language publications, both secular and religious, were forbidden. Slovak priests were encouraged to denounce Gojdič as favoring the Ruthenian identity or language.
Defending the Rusyns
“… the majority of my faithful, the Ruthenians, have no one to defend their national, political and cultural interests.”
Throughout the war years and under the communists, Gojdič defended the Ruthenian schools, use of Church Slavonic in worship, and tried to protect Rusyn civil servants from dismissal or forced removal to other areas. He was thoroughly disliked by the new government, and this was made known by suspension of priests and reduction of salaries for the Greek Catholic clergy, propaganda that the bishop impeded the growth of the Slovak nation, and pressures on the eparchy’s Teachers' Academy to use only Slovak and recruit only ethnic Slovaks. To relieve pressure on the eparchy, on November 22, 1939, the bishop informed the Slovak government that he was submitting his resignation to Rome. The Holy See intervened, however, and on July 19, 1940, the pope named Bishop Gojdič as the Ordinary of the Prešov eparchy. When he was enthroned on August 8, the government officials and Roman Catholic bishops boycotted the services.
Saving Jews
The Holy See refused to open a nunciature in Bratislava after the collapse of Czechoslovakia. Instead, the pope sent a chargé d’ affaire, Msgr. Giuseppe Burzio Burzio, who would figure prominently in publicizing the truth about Auschwitz and interventions for the Jews of Slovakia. The state deported 69,000 of its Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz; the Greek Catholic Church energetically resisted and saved at least 1,500 Jews.
Gojdič protested the persecution of the Jews and personally intervened in rescuing many from deportation and death, inspiring priests, sisters, and laity to do the same. Gojdič would gain fame as the only Catholic bishop in a heavily Catholic country to publicly defend the Jews throughout the Tiso era. He was condemned by the secret police for it.
Unlike any of the Latin bishops, he went right up to a deportation train in the Prešov rail yard. Holding a baptismal certificate for Erica Fleischer, the bishop convinced the Hlinka Guards to free the entire extended family. He and Vojtech Kolenka helped the Spitzer family find refuge; ten lives were saved. Erika Kardoš testified that the bishop personally saved nearly three dozen people. The secret police complained about the bishop's actions in Michalovce at a large baptismal ceremony for Jews. After his arrest by the communists, several Jewish survivors tried to submit testimony on his behalf to save him from prison.
Arrest, Torture, and Abuse By Communists
Violent attacks against him took place in the press and radio, accusing him of espionage and treason. When a false sobor (council) was forcibly attended by clergy and laity on April 28, 1950, a mob of Orthodox collaborators went to the cathedral, broke open the doors and stormed inside. Gojdič was arrested on charges of “opposing the will of the people.” He was offered money and the post of “patriarch” of the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia. To all of it he replied quite bluntly, "I am already 62 years old, and I am sacrificing all my property and residence, but I will not betray my faith under any circumstances, because I want my soul to be saved."
In prison he was subjected to physical and psychological torture, forced to stand or walk for hours on end. He had to write his biography with the interrogators' questions and desired answers by heart, and was denied food and sleep. He was beaten with closed fists, and electrocuted with iron rods put in between his fingers. He continued to pray, unmoved by his suffering.
He was isolated from other prisoners, especially priests or Catholic laity. When in forced labor he prayed with inmates, shared his rations, and helped the sick. He managed to celebrate the Divine Liturgy using prison bread with wine made from fermented raisins, and a spoon for a chalice.
A Special Gift at Death
Gojdič prayed that he would begin his heavenly life on his birthday, absolved by a priest. A fellow prisoner testified that the bishop died on his birthday, July 17, 1960 after absolution by a priest-prisoner. Bishop Hopko wrote in a letter smuggled out of prison: "We no longer pray for him, we pray to him … When it is possible, the world will know whom it condemned."
He was beatified by Saint John Paul II on November 4, 2001, and declared a Righteous Gentile by Israel in 2007 for his rescue work on behalf of the persecuted Jews.