Marie Damborská

* 1927

  • "It was day after day and you still took it somehow. Uncle (P. Ondřej Damborský) used to say: 'What else will they think up about us?' We strived to be under "God's guidance", because it was impossible otherwise. It's not until this time that we're still learning so much about what it was all about, because for the whole forty years it couldn't be worked out. And also, I had my experience. I used to go to church every day, but that day I didn't go somehow and somebody rang the bell and appeared and introduced himself to me, saying that he was a Polish divine, that he hadn't managed to get across the border. But it was raining at the time, he was so really wet, muddy and most of all hungry. Well, I didn't think anything of it, I just had breakfast and everything and dried it, and before Uncle Ondřej got out of the church, he was already there, so I provided him with all possible food, and he was gone. But when I told my uncle, he froze up, because there was a criminal office next door, next to the rectory, and they were certainly watching who was coming to us. And I remember seeing him afterwards, perhaps he managed to cross for the second time."

  • "You mustn't have irritated the Communists too much. They (P. Ondřej Damborský) always said: 'To take my consent for some stupid thing, I don't want it.' And so, when the secretary came, or one day there was a secretary in Vyškov. A plump woman, as far as I can see. A transparent blouse, she was still dressed like that, and so she got there and my uncle wasn't home, so I had to find a topic to keep her busy. And here in Breclav, we were already in Pavlovice, there was an actor again, he was playing theatre. And he talked to me, and the hour passed like nothing... I've experienced them like that sometimes." - "But you say you had to entertain her. That is, she came and sat down and had a coffee ..." - "Yes, and she said, 'When the parson's not at home, I'm here.'"

  • "At Velehrad in the sixty-eighth year there was a great gathering of priests, and it was a gathering of priests after that time from the forty-eighth year to the sixty-eighth year, when in fact it was hard to do anything, and in the sixty-eighth year it was already... it was called the Work of the Council of Renewal. That was after the Council, and that's where it was all going. There was no knowledge of the Second Vatican Council. That time my uncle arrived so happy, well they were so excited that... that was in April, it was right after Easter. They still talk about it, how beautifully it was established. But then August came, the Russian troops... well, that's it. The first thing they banned, it was already established, there were statutes, that Work of the Council of the Renewal, and that was the first thing they banned immediately."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Kobylí, 20.01.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 02:47:31
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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There is no judge where there is no snitch

Without exact date, profile photograph, historical
Without exact date, profile photograph, historical
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

Marie Damborská was born on 12 December 1927 in Kobylí in the Břeclav region. Her father‘s brother, Ondřej Damborský, was ordained a priest in 1937 and Marie gave the welcome address in her native village at his Prima Missa (first mass served by a Catholic priest). Eleven years later, after graduating from the business school in Hodonin, she joined him as parish housekeeper in Breclav. They came to the parish in February 1948, and witnessed many arrests and interrogations in connection with the crossing of the nearby border into Austria. Church authorities perceived Father Damborsky‘s work in the border village as „risky“, so in 1952 Marie moved to Doubravník in the Tišnov region. Here they stayed for six years before being transferred to Dražovice in the Vyškov region. They got to a quiet parish and Marie worked there until 1969 when the priest was transferred to Velké Pavlovice in the Breclav region. After the death of her uncle, Marie accepted a position as parish housekeeper in Drásov with P. František Nestroil. She lived through the Velvet Revolution with the parish and the arrival of freedom in a Christian environment. She assisted the parish priest until she was eighty years old. She lives in the circle of extended family in Kobylí.