To be faithful to the Lord God
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Fr Jan Rob was born on 17 December 1914 in Příbram. He had one sister, who is dead now. He spent his youth with his family in Bratislava. After graduating from a local grammar school he went to Prague to study at the University of Electrical Engineering. After completing his degree in 1938 he taught at secondary technical schools in Bratislava and Brno. Shortly before the war he became acquainted with the Salesian Order in Moravia, and he decided to walk the path of Don Bosco. He underwent his novitiate in Ořechov in the years 1940 to 1941. The formation process culminated with him taking his solemn vows in 1944. He studied theology in Osek, where he was also ordained into priesthood in 1948. Until 1950 he functioned as a catechetist at the Salesian oratory in Brno-Žabovřesky. During Operation K he was arrested and taken to the internment monastery in Osek near Duchcov. He was then assigned to military service in the Auxiliary Engineering Corps (forced labour). From 1954 he worked at an electrical assembly plant. In 1957 he was arrested and sentenced to three years of prison. After serving his sentence he was employed as a worker at the penicillin factory in Roztoky near Prague. During Prague Spring he managed to obtain state permission to officially serve as a priest, and he functioned as a parish priest in the Diocese of Litoměřice until 1973. Under the normalisation Fr Jan was transferred to České Kamenice, where he served as priest from 1973 to 1991. With the return of democracy he reunited with his fellow brothers in Teplice, where they founded a new Salesian community. Fr Jan continues to live there in his old age.
