"Bojanovský križ, who, God, was cutting you, Bojanovský križ, who, God, was cutting you, who painted you nicely with colours, who painted you nicely with colours.
A cheerful old man was cutting me, a cheerful old man was cutting me, he had kind hands, my dear, he had kind hands, my dear.
One year he was cutting me, the next he painted me, one year he was cutting me, the next he painted me, his heart of gold, he left it in me, his heartof gold, he left it in me."
"The best part was when we first took off the habit, and we had nothing to wear. They told us we couldn't wear the habit anymore. So how do we do that? So we were in the habit, without the veil. Because we didn't have civilian clothes anymore, we gave everything away. And the kids, when they saw us in the institution, they all threw up their hands, 'How come you don't have a veil? Didn't the laundry deliver them to you?' So they ran to the laundry: 'How come you didn't give them veils? They walk around without veils, that's impossible!' They hid us, they kept chasing us to hide, that we couldn't go without a veil. They couldn't understand, poor things. And we said, 'Unfortunately, it's going to be like this, we're going to go without veils.' It was from the year seventy-two. It wasn't until December of eighty-eight that they allowed us, those who had taken off our habit, that we could put them on again."
"There was always something that they wanted to convince us. They even sent us on holiday with trade unions. We were in Janské Lázně for a week's holiday. Only they didn't find out that the very week we were there, sisters were there for a religious exercise in Janské Lázně. They were there for a fortnight, they had the first week of exercise, and then they had a week of relaxation that they could walk in the mountains. We were there during the week that they had that week of relaxation. We joined them there and we went hiking with the sisters, hiking in the mountains and stuff. And they never found out. They sent us on the holiday and they thought we would find somebody on holiday, that there would be some opportunity, but we were there with other sisters, so that didn't work out either."
Sister Irena, civil name Marie Řezáčová, was born on 3 October, 1950 in Dolní Bojanovice. She grew up in a farmers´ family that was affected by forced collectivization. She trained as a plywood line operator at the Tatra Hodonín Plywood and Veneer Plant. At the age of twenty-one she entered a convent, following the example of her younger sister, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius in Velehrad. She completed her education in the field of nursing graduating from secondary school. She worked as a caregiver in the Institute of Social Care for Youth in Stojanov. In November 1972 she had to take off her recently acquired religious habit by order of the state. Gradually, her contact with the older nuns was restricted until she was finally moved to a quarters in Uherské Hradiště together with other novices and secret nuns. She was forced to spend eight years outside the walls of the convent, and sixteen without her habit. However, she never ceased to be a nun at heart. She felt her first breath of freedom in 1985 when she participated in a pilgrimage to Velehrad. Four years later, the hope was fulfilled after her return from the canonization of Agnes of Bohemia in Rome. In 2023, she was living in the monastery at Velehrad.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
