On this
date, September 4, 1942, Bishop Gorazd the Cathedral priests and the lay officials were
executed by firing squad at Kobylisy Shooting Range. Bishop Gorazd’s feast day
is celebrated on August 22 (OC) or September 4 (NC).
We honor
his as a true martyr who sacrificed himself to save his countrymen and we, the
comrades of Unit 1012, will make him one of the 26 Christian Martyrs of Unit 1012. We will
post information from Wikipedia before giving our comments and
condolences.
New Martyr, Bishop of Prague, Metropolitan of the
Czech Lands and Slovakia
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Born
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May 26,
1879
Hrubá Vrbka, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (today Czech Republic) |
Died
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September
4, 1942 (aged 63)
Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (today Czech Republic) |
Honored
in
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Eastern
Orthodoxy
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Canonized
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May 4,
1961 by the Serbian Orthodox Church (as a New Martyr)
August 24, 1987, Olomouc, by the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church |
Feast
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22
August (OC) or 4 September (NC)
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Bishop Gorazd
of Prague, given name MatÄ›j PavlĂk (May 26, 1879 – September 4,
1942), was the hierarch of the revived Orthodox Church in Moravia, the Church
of Czechoslovakia, after World War I. During World War II, having provided
refuge for the assassins of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, called The
Hangman of Prague, in the cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius in
Prague, Gorazd took full responsibility for protecting the patriots after the
Schutzstaffel found them in the crypt of the cathedral. This act guaranteed his
execution, thus his martyrdom, during the reprisals that followed. His feast
day is celebrated on August 22 (OC) or September 4 (NC).
Life
Matěj
PavlĂk was born on May 26, 1879, in the Moravian village of Hrubá Vrbka in what
would later be the Czech Republic. Born into the Roman Catholic society of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, Matthias entered the Faculty of Theology in Olomouc
after finishing his earlier education. He was subsequently ordained a priest.
During his studies, he was interested in the mission of Saints Cyril and
Methodius and of Eastern Orthodoxy.
Establishment
of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the First World War brought complete
religious freedom. In this environment, many people left the Catholic Church. While
many left the religion completely, some looked either to old Czech Protestant
churches or, as PavlĂk, to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Serbian Orthodox Church
provided a shelter for those looking to Orthodoxy. As a leader in Moravia, the
Church of Serbia agreed to consecrate Fr. PavlĂk to the episcopate for his
homeland. On September 24, 1921, he was consecrated bishop with the name of
Gorazd.
Historically,
his monastic name of Gorazd was significant as it was the name of the bishop
who succeeded St. Methodius as Bishop of Moravia after he died in 885.
Subsequently, Pope Stephen V drove the disciples of St. Methodius from Moravia
as the Latin rite was imposed. Thus, by the choice of his monastic name of
Gorazd, the continuity of the Orthodox Church in Moravia from some eleven
hundred years before was recognized.
Archimandrite
Gorazd was named Bishop of Moravia and Silesia on September 24, 1921, and
consecrated bishop on the next day at the Cathedral of the Holy Archangel
Michael in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, by Patriarch Dimitrije.
Over the
next decade or so, Bp. Gorazd and his faithful followers organized parishes and
built churches in Bohemia. In all they built eleven churches and two chapels.
He had the essential service books translated and published in the Czech
language, which was the language used in the church services. With
Subcarpatho-Russia and Slovakia part of Czechoslovakia, he assisted many who
had returned to their ancestral Orthodox faith.
With the
conquest of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis in 1938, the church was placed under
the Metropolitan in Berlin, Germany. Reinhard Heydrich was appointed as ruler
of Czechoslovakia. On May 27, 1942, a group of Czech resistance fighters
attacked and killed Heydrich. In making their escape, the group found refuge in
the crypt of the Cathedral. When Bp. Gorazd found out a few days later, he
recognized the serious burden this placed on the Czech Orthodox Church. Before
he left for the consecration to the episcopate of Fr. John (Gardner) in Berlin,
he asked that the resistance fighters move elsewhere as soon as possible.
However, on June 18, the Nazis found out the hiding places after a betrayal by
two members of the resistance group, and all the members of the group were
killed.
Reprisals
came quickly. The two priests and the senior lay church officials were
arrested. Bp. Gorazd, wishing to help his fellow believers and the Czech Church
itself, took the blame for the actions in the Cathedral on himself, even
writing letters to the Nazi authorities. On June 27, 1942, he was arrested and
tortured. On September 4, 1942, Bp. Gorazd, the Cathedral priests and the lay
officials were executed by firing squad at Kobylisy Shooting Range. The
reprisals went much further as the Nazis conducted widespread roundups of
Czechs, including the whole village of Lidice, then summarily killed the men
and children, while they placed the women in concentration camps. The Orthodox
churches in Moravia and Bohemia were closed and the Church forbidden to
operate. Metropolitan Seraphim courageously refused to issue any statement
condemning Bishop Gorazd. It wasn't until the end of the war that the Orthodox
Church in Czechoslovakia would function again.
Icon. Hieromartyr
Gorazd Bohemian, Transcarpathia, Mukachevo, 2012
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Glorification
By these actions by the Orthodox Faithful, who, led
by their bishop, proved the qualities of their little church in bravery and
devotion to matters of justice and showed how firmly it was connected to the
Czech nation. On May 4, 1961, the Serbian Orthodox Church recognized Bp. Gorazd
as a new martyr, and on August 24, 1987, he was glorified in the Cathedral of
St. Gorazd in Olomouc in Moravia.
Close-up of memorial plaques with names of
the victims.
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobylisy_Shooting_Range
Kobylisy
Shooting Range (Czech: Kobyliská střelnice) is a former
military shooting range located in Kobylisy, a northern suburb of Prague, Czech
Republic.
The
shooting range was established in 1889-1891, on a site that was at the time far
outside the city, as a training facility for the Austro-Hungarian (and, later,
Czechoslovak) army. During the Nazi occupation it was used for mass executions
as part of retaliatory measures against the Czech people after the
assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. About 550 Czech patriots of every
social rank lost their lives here, most of them between May 30 and July 3,
1942, when executions took place almost every day. The bodies of the executed
were subsequently incinerated in Strašnice crematorium.
A list of
people shot at Kobylisy includes:
- Jan Auerhan, director of the State Bureau of Statistics
- Gen. Alois Eliáš, prime minister
- Lt. Col. Josef MašĂn soldier, member of the Three Kings resistance group
- MatÄ›j PavlĂk-Gorazd, bishop of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church, later canonised as saint Gorazd
- Františka PlamĂnková, senator, feminist
- Evžen Rošický, journalist, athlete
- Vladislav VanÄŤura, physician, writer and film director
- 26 citizens of Lidice (members of the Horák and StĹ™ĂbrnĂ˝ families arrested before the extermination of the village, and men who were away at work that night)
The site was converted to a memorial
after World War II, and its current dimensions date to the 1970s when the large
paneláks (Communist-era tower blocks) of a new housing estate encroached upon
it. Kobylisy Shooting Range has had the status of national cultural monument
since 1978. Today it is freely accessible and is within ten minutes' walk of
the Kobylisy or Ládvà metro stations.
Kobylisy shooting range - verses by poet
Miroslav Florian (Stand still for a while / Our blood entered this soil /
But we straightened up again) and row of plaques listing all victims.
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Mosaic at place of former stables
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COMMENTS AND CONDOLENCES:
We will
honor Bishop Gorazd as a true martyr, who sacrificed himself to save his
countrymen. He was a true hero and martyr, unlike terrorists who claimed to be
martyrs, when they are scums with no right to life. There was a debate
on whether executing terrorists will make them become martyrs, but in our
opinion, it does not at all. We rather think of murdered victims
and war heroes as martyrs.
Unlike Amrozi the
Smiling Assassin, we believe that Bishop Gorazd died a brave death,
when facing the firing
squad. We will remember him for his heroic deeds and not listen to
abolitionists who claim that executing a terrorist will make them a martyr.
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