Vlastimil Ovčáčík

* 1929  †︎ 2022

  • “And I looked there - a dandelion was blooming in the middle of the sand. Nothing else was there, just sand and sand and a dandelion. I walked around in circles to get closer to that dandelion. And when I was close enough, I quickly jumped, pulled it out, and put it in my mouth. And immediately there was an alarm and sirens. They suspected me, they wanted to pump out what I swallowed. They thought it was something secret… And I said, 'Don't be angry, I haven't had any vitamins in a long time, so I needed some vegetables (laughs).' ”

  • “I was in pre-trial detention in Uherské Hradiště and they kept asking me for other names of people I had met, etc. And I didn't want to tell them any names, so they attacked me – one bachelor walked with me and suddenly two other came from the side corridor and they threw a blanket over my head and pushed me down the stairs. I didn't know where I was falling.”

  • “We had to gather in the grammar school canteen and we heard the verdict. We got on the bus and we were guarded by armed men. We had to be silent but one of the brothers suddenly said, 'Haec dies quam fecit dominus exsultemus et laetemur in ea.' We understood, it was an encouragement for us, but the guards were furious that someone spoke. And it means: 'This is the day the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it.' So we accepted it that way and I accepted that we were directed to an unknown place, etc. It was my exercise and that's how I experienced it.”

  • “I remember when I was in second grade, there was nothing to eat and there was nothing to buy. Even though people had money, there was nothing to buy. We were happy when a farmer brought a full car of peas for the grammar school. And we always went to a certain place, I have a map here, and we prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph. And St. Joseph always sent us some help - so we lived from day to day. It was difficult period when there was nothing to buy at all. Our superiors also starved.”

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    Velehrad, 23.03.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 02:12:52
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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I was where the Lord wanted me to be

Vlastimil Ovčáčík, First Mass procession, Velehrad, 1971
Vlastimil Ovčáčík, First Mass procession, Velehrad, 1971
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Vlastimil Ovčáčík was born on 28 December 1929 in Kunovice in Wallachia to a very modest household. He grew up with his mother Marie, née Kunová, his father Václav and six siblings. At the age of ten, he entered a grammar school in Velehrad and he studied there until 1942, when the church grammar school was closed. He continued his studies in Valašské Meziříčí, where he graduated in 1948. Studying in Velehrad, where he met a number of great personalities of the Catholic Church and excellent teachers, influenced him so much that he decided to return there immediately after graduation to join the Jesuit order. On the night of 13 to 14 April 1950, he and other brothers and superiors of the order were involuntarily deported to Bohosudov as part of Action K (Akce K). In September, he was assigned to the Auxiliary Technical Battalions (PTP) in Komárno, later in Podbořany and Hájníky in Slovakia, where he fell ill and was treated for gastric ulcers in Ružomberok, Slovakia. He was eventually discharged from the army in April 1951 due to bad health condition. Until 1960, he worked in Zbrojovka Vsetín or in agriculture. He didn‘t want to give up his spiritual direction, so he devoted himself to self-study and remained in contact with Jesuit brothers. In 1960, while holding the position of maintenance worker in Stojanov, he was arrested and spent custody in Uherské Hradiště and Brno. The interrogators tried to force his confession of hostility towards the state system and attempts to subvert the republic. Firstly by psychological pressure, but later they also threw him down the stairs with a blanket over his head, on the way from the interrogation in Uherské Hradiště. On 20 May 1960 he was sentenced to eighteen months along with the group around Březina. He spent a year and a half of imprisonment in the correctional labour camp of the Pankrác prison on the housing construction of Nový Hloubětín - he was „employed“ by Stavbyt Praha - the Prague company of the Ministry of the Interior. After his release, he gradually completed his professional education in the field of electrical engineering and he worked as an electrician, repairing large construction machines, including cranes. Prior to joining the seminary in 1968, he was employed by the Computer Technology Company in Uherské Hradiště. He was admitted to the Roman Catholic Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology in Prague, based in Litoměřice. They accepted the two years of his previous self-study, so he was ordained a priest on 5 July 1971. He worked in Veselí nad Moravou, Kyjov, Strážnice and Kuželov. Since 2008 he has lived in Velehrad. He died there in March 2022.