Františka (Sestra Helena) Řezáčová

* 1951

  • "And then we arrived in Vienna, and I said, 'I have an auntie here in the convent, and I would like to visit her.' But I didn't know how, because we were a big group, a whole train. So then I told the bosses that I needed to go and see my aunt, and suddenly I saw a gentleman walking down the sidewalk who was from our village and lived in Vienna. And he saw me, and he said, 'Do you want to go see your auntie?' And I said, 'Well, I do, but I don't know how.' - 'I'll take you there. I go there to visit her sometimes.' So I told the bosses that I would go and asked when the train was leaving, that I would come back to the train. So he took me to the auntie. We took the metro and various trams until we got there. So we arrived at the convent, it was huge, huge vineyards, grounds, everything, and now we're approaching the convent, and there's somebody by the currant bush picking currants, and he says, 'That's auntie.' So we said in Czech, 'God help us,' and my auntie got up and said, 'God bless you.' And he said, 'I'm bringing you a visitor. You have family here.' And the auntie, without knowing, said, 'Are you from Jenda or are you from Vašek?' I said, 'From Jenda.' So my auntie was glad. I meant to stay there back then because you could go to the convent there but not here. And Father Topenčík was a theologian at that time, and I told him I would probably stay there. And he said, 'No, let the Austrians go there, you can come with us. We need people too, and they, let them go here.' So I gave it up. So my aunt and I talked and chatted, and then Mr. Fatěna took me back to the train. Auntie gave me some candy for the kids. I came home, and I said, 'I visited auntie,' and everyone went ha ha ha. I said, 'I really was. Here's some candy from her.' So I told them how I was lucky to see her. So I was very happy I could go there."

  • "I was assigned beds of strawberries, cucumbers, onions, carrots, everything, so my siblings came to help me because it was too much. Especially with the strawberry picking. That's what everybody was looking forward to. They'd come with mugs and sugar, and they'd press it in and eat it. And that went on for days. The rows were wide, there were a lot of strawberries, so they helped out a lot with that. I was in the cooperative for three years and then I decided to go to Velehrad. So I quit my job there. They let me go right away. I didn't even have to wait two months. But they didn't believe it. They thought that I would come back, that I wouldn't last anyway, that I would return back home. So we sort of parted ways, but my siblings would come to see me in Velehrad. My sister didn't think she would go to Velehrad, too. She enjoyed dances and was going out with the boys, but then she suddenly came and said, 'I'll go too.' I told her at the time, 'Don't go. Mummy's not here, and you have to help Daddy bring up the rest of the siblings.' And she said, 'Oh, but Anežka is already turning eighteen soon, so she'll be looking after them now. And Daddy didn't object, so two years later, she came to Velehrad as well."

  • "We always wanted to have another sibling. Every year, we asked if Mom would bring something from Hodonín from the maternity hospital. And when the youngest brother was four, five, six years old, we would ask: 'And Mom, is that all? We don't have twins yet!' Mom laughed and said, 'I think that's already enough.' But then, when my brother was seven or eight years old, mommy got sick and died, so there were no more of us. So there were seven of us. And Dad's brother already had a married daughter, and then they had an eighth one, so we were jealous that we couldn't have any more. We were bigger by then, we wanted to drive the stroller, but we didn't have anybody to drive anymore. We were with Dad, and we still had both grandfathers and both grandmothers, so they helped raise us. Then we were out of school, so we helped with the younger siblings. That's how it went. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn't. So we shook it off as much as we could."

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    Velehrad, 13.07.2022

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    délka: 01:08:08
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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From Vienna to Velehrad

After the first monastic vows, Sister Václava on the left, Sister Františka on the right
After the first monastic vows, Sister Václava on the left, Sister Františka on the right
zdroj: Witness archive

Františka Řezáčová was born on 26 August 1951 into a family of farmers in Dolní Bojanovice. She had six siblings. The family was forced to join a Unified Agricultural Cooperative (JZD) and undergo collectivisation. The regime did not allow Františka Řezáčová to study, so she joined the cooperative as a farm worker when she wasn‘t even fifteen years old. A great role model for her was a distant aunt who lived in Vienna in the Order of St. Ursula, with whom she occasionally corresponded. In 1968, Františka Řezáčová managed to visit her aunt during a trip organised by the cooperative. Shortly before her eighteenth birthday, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius in Velehrad. She completed her pedagogical education and spent her life caring for the ill and handicapped. In 2022, she lived and worked in the convent in Velehrad.