They arrested Mother Bohumila

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Helena Nováková decided to join Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo after World War II. The convent in Prague’s Lesser Town was led by the General Abbess of the order, Mother Žofie Bohumila Langrová who got in several conflicts with the communist regime, including due to the regime’s attempts at eliminating order sisters’ major role in the care for the weak and sick. Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo worked at the Pod Petřínem Hospital. “Mother Bohumila was an energetic, intelligent and fearless woman. At the time, many priests were forced to work with the Auxiliary Battalions where they could not serve holy mass. They would come to us on Sunday afternoons as visitors to the sick and did secret services. They got something to eat and a little cash too. The Abbess was not afraid to oppose Minister of Health Plojhar. She spoke at a public meeting of order sisters discussing the state salaries based on qualifications and years served. That would mean equal monetary allowances to everyone, but sisters perceived the move as an attempt at disrupting and eliminating the order community: ‘If you receive the state salary, you are a state employee and the state has the right to send you wherever it chooses.’ She anticipated arrest after the turbulent meeting,” Helena recalled. Mother Bohumila was also in contact with catholic intellectuals, priests, and journalists who tried to educate young people. P. Otto Mádr, by then sought by the StB, and many other priests intending to leave the country illegally were active in the group. Mother Bohumila was arrested on 25 January 1952.

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Helena (Richardis) Nováková

Helena Nováková was born December 3, 1928 in Rozseč near Nová Říše. Her father was a teacher. The family soon relocated and Helena began attending school in Malý Pěčín near Dačice. She then studied at Otakar Březina's Grammar School in Telč. The grammar school was closed down during the war, and she therefore went to continue her studies to Třebíč. She was also a member of the Orel sports movement. She remembers the circumstances of the Munich conference, the Czech-German relations in the Highlands region, and the first postwar days in Dačice. After the war she went to a convent, where she first taught physical education in the convent school. She also began studying the Pedagogical Faculty. In 1949 she received her nun's habit and name - Sister Richardis. The Boromei convent in Malá Strana in Prague was headed by Mother Superior Bohumila Žofie Langerová, who was arrested at the end of January 1952, with Father Josef Zvěřina. The trial took place in March 1952 in Brno. In her narration she mentions Father Josef Zvěřina, Father Oto Mádr, doctor Broj, chaplain Kubát, and many others. She also talks about the communist pressure against the Church. Sister Richardis was working in the hospital in Tábor, later she was transferred together with other sisters to a factory near Trutnov, (Texlen factory in Libeč). She worked there for 3 years. Later she helped as a housekeeper. In 1968 she attended a course for catechists in Olomouc. For some time she also lived in Moravské Budějovice, (St. Anthony House), and Znojmo, (Charity home Znojmo-Hradiště). She now lives in Prague.

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Prague 1, the Congregation of the Merciful Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo

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In the mid-19th century, two small houses bellow the Strahov gardens were bought by the Congregation of the Merciful Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo and a hospital was built there. The sisters not only took care of their patients, but also worked in schools and in a number of other social institutions in Prague and in other Czech and Moravian towns. After the communist takeover in 1948, the influence of the Church in Czechoslovakia was forcibly limited. In December 1951, the Mother Superior of the Order of St. Charles Borromeo, Mother Bohumila, was arrested and along with her the priest Josef Zvěřina. The priest Otto Mádr, who went into hiding in the Borromeo hospital below Petřín for about three weeks, was arrested in January 1952. In the night of 14-15 August, 1952, the nuns had to suspend their activities in the hospital below Petřín for good and the Congregation property was nationalized. The elderly nuns were concentrated in charity homes and many of the younger Sisters were placed in the borderlands, where they worked in textile factories. The church continued for another ten years to serve religious purposes, but on September 2, 1962, it was closed down. After 1989, the church was returned to the Congregation (on 23 April, 1990) and it was renovated in 1992.

Prague 1, the Congregation of the Merciful Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo

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They arrested Mother Bohumila

Helena (Richardis) Nováková