"My name is Eugen Kočiš, I was born in the village of Pozdišovce, Michalovce district, Slovakia. My father was a wainwright. We were seven children, I was the youngest. 1928 came, and the years of crisis. The farmers had work to offer, but nothing to pay for it. So my father packed his things and took the position of wainwright for the Třebišovice sugar mill. I was two years old when we left, so I grew up in the village of Vojčice, Třebišov district."
"Up to our dissolution, there were few Orthodox Catholics in the former Czechoslovak republic. They were in some thirteen areas - small communities. They didn't even have a parish in Prešov, in other places not even a church. After World War II, they started building an Orthodox temple in Prešov. When our dissolution was planned, they reckoned on ordaining their Orthodox bishop in our cathedral."
"In February 1950, the diocesan bishop Pavol Gojdič publicly ordained the fifth year seminarians, but he was subsequently confined to his residence, so we could not contact him personally. However, he succeeded in sending a letter to the seminary superiors, requesting them to prepare for further consecrations, but secretly. In the end, we were to be two ordained - Mikuláš Chanát and I. The ordination was planned for Sunday the 23rd of April, but it never took place, as on the Friday preceding it, the 21st of April, the StB seized the seminary."
"They brought people of all sorts to the Black Eagle, people who had no clue as to what was happening. There they declared they were breaking the union of Greek Catholics with the Pope and Church, and that they were embracing Orthodoxy. But those who were there had no right to that, no right to speak for Greek Catholics. There were dissenters there, and all kind of rabble. When they passed the motion, they went from the Black Eagle to the cathedral, where they met up with patriarch Jelevferij, who accepted them into the bosom of the Orthodox Church. But that was not voluntary, that was forced."
"I was given leave for Christmas. The plan was to have it done during the feast days, but again that didn't work out. Not until the 1st of January 1951, on New Year's Day - the new calendar year - was I ordained (a priest) in Rožňava."
Ján Eugen Kočiš was born on the 25th of June 1926 in Pozdišovce, Slovakia. In his fourth year of theological studies at the Greek Catholic Seminary of Prešov, he was caught up in the turmoil of April 1950, when the Greek Catholic Church, with ties to Rome and loyal to the Pope, was forcefully joined to the Orthodox Church and thus to the Moscow Patriarchy. This was clearly a part of state policy, aimed at crippling the Catholic Church. To continue to be a Greek Catholic was thus made illegal. Kočiš left the seminary, and soon after was drafted into the military to serve with the Auxiliary Engineering Corps. On New Year‘s Day, 1951, while on leave, he was secretly ordained by ThDr. Róbert Pobožný, Bishop of Trnava. Kočiš was determined to serve as a secret priest. After his release from the AEC, Kočiš was given the job of a work hand at a bakery, but in fact he devoted himself to his true calling. Such activity was deemed „thwarting of state supervision over the Churches“ in accordance to the law - it was not only Kočiš who was at risk, but also those to whom he serviced the sacraments. From July 1955 to February 1958 he was forced into hiding. Even during this time, he acted upon his priestly duties. On the 7th of February 1958, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Dark Mine (Tmavý důl) in Rtyně v Podkrkonoší, where he mined coal until amnesty agreements in 1960. After his release and until the Prague Spring, he was employed at a gasoline refinery. In 1969, when the Greek Catholic Church was renewed and again allowed to profess loyalty to the Roman Pope, Kočiš was named master of ceremonies and actuary of the Prešov bishopric. At the same time, he served as pastor of several parishes. After the dissolution of the Republic, an apostolic exarchate was founded in Prague in 1993 and Kočiš was named its chancellor. In 2002, Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of Papal Prelate. Two years later, Kočiš was appointed Titular Bishop of Abritt. Ján Eugen Kočiš passed away on December, the 4th, 2019
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