Michal Roško

“That monastery in Králíky was kind of an internment camp, where the Jesuits, Salesians, Franciscans were gathered together. The young ones or some others were either left there or divided to other places in 1950. We stayed in Králíky approximately half a year.” “What did you do as a PTP worker?” “Well, for example, I worked at the farm. Once a horse felt sick, so I unhitched him, sat on him and tried to make him move. Those guards started catching me as they thought I was running away from the camp. I told them: ‘No, don’t worry, the horse is sick, so I am trying to help him!’ Or in times when I planted snails, the guard took his gun and went with me. I had a bucket, such a cloak, an umbrella and I went to pick snails near the brook. We used to come back at lunch. Before that I even worked in a laundry room. We washed clothes and so.”

“I have such an experience from times when I was a sophomore studying at the Pedagogical Academy. I lived with Salesians and used to go to our monastery. Once, when I was returning from a worship service, I heard a voice on the sidewalk: ‘You shall become a priest.’ It wasn’t hallucination. I said that to my friend and he told me: ‘Do you have a piece of paper?’ ‘No, I don’t.’ And he wrote on a card envelope: ‘May Lord God bless your decision to be ordained.’ I carried this for three years with me. Yet after those years Fr. Mastiliak, who was my professor and my confessor, told me: ‘Now you can burn this note, as you are accepted to the monastery. But never forget your grandma!’ Because my grandma admitted she had been praying for me to become a priest.”