Icon- Blessed Metod Dominik Trčka

Icon of Blessed Metod Dominik Trčka

Approximate dimensions: 7 1/4" x 9 1/2"

The Czech Redemptorist Metod Dominik Trčka was born in Moravia in 1886.  He made his profession in 1904, and he was ordained in Prague on July 17, 1910. He spent his early years as a priest preaching parish missions. In 1919 he was sent to work among the Greek Catholics in the area of Halic, in Galizia, and then in Slovakia in the Eparchy of Prešov, where he carried on intense missionary activity. In March 1935 he was appointed by the Congregation for Oriental Churches as apostolic visitor to the Basilian monks in Prešov and in Uzhorod. When the vice province of Michalovce was founded, Fr. Trčka was appointed vice-provincial on March 23, 1946. He began to work zealously to found new houses and to form young Redemptorists.

During the night of the April 13, 1950, the Czech government suppressed all the religious communities. After a summary trial, Fr. Trčka was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, during which he was subjected to lengthy interrogations and torture. In 1958 he was transferred to Leopoldov prison. He died on March 23, 1959, suffering from pneumonia contracted during solitary confinement, which was imposed on him for singing a Christmas hymn.

He was interred in the prison cemetery, but after the liberation of the Greek Catholic Church, his remains were transferred to the Redemptorist plot in the Michalovce cemetery in 1969. Pope John Paul II proclaimed him to be Blessed on November 4, 2001.