Marie (sestra Vlasta) Grisová

“My dad died during summer vacation. I stayed at home throughout the winter, and then in spring, they needed me in that family in the mountains; they had a little baby girl, about a year or two old, it was a little baby. I liked children, and they asked me whether I would not come to help them as a babysitter, because they needed to go plant the potatoes or something like that, and since I liked taking care of children, I went there. I don’t know if it was meant as a trick, but now in retrospect I think it was. I went there and when I wanted to go back home in the evening, they told me: ´We will not let you, you will stay here.´ This was very difficult for me at that time. I remember that I did cry, but I say again that I really was not a child anymore and I didn’t want to cause trouble to my mom. I somehow understood it and I think it was all under God’s guidance, too, that the Lord had this path for me. It was a difficult path for a child, and so I was ... well, I didn’t resist, I cried a bit and then I stayed there.”

“There were nine of us; and twenty in the novitiate. The nine of us took the first vows, and afterwards, as was the custom in the congregation, we were sent to various institutions run by the order. I and sisters Maria and Timotea, who went later, were thus sent to Slatiňany. But as novices, we had absolutely no idea what was happening in the world.” (Interviewer: “Not at all?”) “No, we didn’t read newspapers, and people didn’t talk about it.” (Interviewer: “So you did not know that the communist terror was underway?”) “Well, it was not in full power yet, but these thing were already happening.” (Interviewer: “There was the coup in 1948, you didn’t know about that?”) “I only know that while I was still a candidate, I was not a sister yet, the sister who was in charge of the novices took me and one other girl to some meeting. And I could not understand why she picked me, because I was an uneducated country girl, I only had elementary school. And so I thought, well, fine, we’ll go there and see. The hall was just completely red and purple, there were cardinals all over the place. It was only later that I realized what it was. These were the beginnings of the Pacem in Terris movement, and it was their meeting where we were. We were there as delegates with that sister. But apart from that, I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about what was happening out there. It was only later, after we had taken the vows, and when the three of us were in Slatiňany. And then, on the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, it happened: they were closing down the convents. But I was already in Slatiňany at that time, in the institute. There were about 60 sisters, and we had everything there, we did everything from gardening to laundry, management, taking care of the children and cooking in the kitchen. We were doing all this by ourselves. And then all of a sudden we learnt about the communists closing the convents, and we thus kept waiting what would happen to us, especially to the young ones. I remember that we had made some preparations for civilian life as well, should it become necessary. I know that the communists were visiting the other convents where our young sisters were and they were persuading them to leave the convents and promising them what not if they did so, and intimidating them. But I have not experienced such pressure while I was in Slatiňany. They did seize the place in Slatiňany, and they took everything from us, and we only had our personal belongings, nothing else.”

“One day we went on a pilgrimage to Chlumeček. And I suddenly had this revelation when we were there. To live a consecrated life, to become a nun. It was clear to me that I wanted to take this path. I wrote home about it and they were all against it. My mom and my siblings, too; my father had already passed away. Then I came home for the New Year and they didn’t want to let me go back. I said that I had given my word to the sisters that I would come back, and so I told them: ´Look, I will return, and I will come back in spring.´ I lied to them at that time, telling them I would come back, but I already had no such intention. Later I wrote them that I had not changed my mind and that I would not come. It was confusing. And it was bad, I had a lot of troubles. They didn’t want to give me permission, and later… wait, how was it actually? I have not told anything to the sisters, to anybody. I was telling them that when I was sure that I would be able to join, or that I would first arrange things at home and then request to join the order. I was receiving many letters from my family, which was unusual for them, and I don’t even remember whether I was answering them. One Saturday I was in the kitchen and the prioress came to me and said: ´Maryška´ – my name was Marie – ´Maryška, there is a telegram for you, your mommy is seriously ill and they want you to come home immediately.´ And I said: ´I’m not going home, I’m not going home, because this is not true.´ Terrible, isn’t it? But they told me: ´How can you say that you are not going home, you get a telegram that your mom is so ill and dying and you say that it is not true and that you will not go?´ We argued for a long time and she still could not understand it and then we went up the stairs to her office and she kept saying: ´I cannot understand you, why don’t you go?´ And I said: ´All right, I will tell you why,´ and I told her that I had simply decided for their way of life, for life among the sisters, and that this was the reason. That my mom was not really ill, but that it was a trick to make me go home.”