In 2008 Česká televize (Czech TV) showed a documentary Dopisy z cely smrti (Letters from death cell). From the 24th minute of this documentary you can see the life story of the priest Jan Bula. Link (english - google translate)
On 24th July 2010 Česká televize showed a report about a Ceremonial afternoon that recalls the life and death of Jan Bula in the programme Události v regionech (Events in regions). From the 8th minute of the Events in regions, you can see this report. Link (english - google translate)
On 20th September 2010 Radio Proglas made a broadcast of a programme Všimli jsme si - Proces blahořečení mučedníka patera Jana Buly. (We have noticed - the beatification proceedings of the martyr priest Jan Bula.) Marie Blažková spoke about the canonization proceedings with the postulator of the canonization proceedings Msgr. Karel Orlita, with the bishop’s delegate Msgr. Jiří Mikulášek and with the moderator of the canonization proceedings Jan Růžička. Link (english - google translate)
5th May 2006, 10:00 AM
“See you in heaven” is a title of a theatre play based on a book of the same name by Jiří Mikulášek which will be performed on 12th May at 7:00 PM by the young believers at the Spiritual Centre in the housing estate Lesná (Nezvalova 13).
Brno: The book “See you in heaven”, which is written by the vicar-general of the Brno diocese Jiří Mikulášek, is a fiction that gives the readers an idea of the life story of Jan Bula, a young priest from the Brno diocese, one of the victims of the so called “Bebice events”. The author gathered in a thin little book a number of both historical sources and personal testimonies of the eyewitnesses with the wish to describe this era especially to young people by a story of one hero.
The whole book “See you in heaven” by Jiří Mikulášek can be downloaded at: http://www.biskupstvi.cz/protebe/sejdemesevnebi.html
Jan Bula was born on 24th July 1920 in Lukov near Moravské Budějovice. After graduating at a grammar school, he entered divinity school (seminary) in Brno at Antonínská street; he was ordained a priest in 1945. He worked as coordinator in Rokytnice nad Rokytnou where he was arrested by the StB in April 1951 on the grounds of a fabricated accusation. In November of the same year the court in Jihlava passed a death sentence on him which was already planned beforehand. The young priest was executed on 20th May 1952 at 5:00 in the morning. In 1990 Jan Bula was freed fully from this accusation. On 25th March 2004 the bishop Vojtěch Cikrle initiated in Brno the diocese part of the process of the priest’s beatification.
The screenplay of the theatre performance is a true adaptation of Jan Bula’s life story written by Jiří Mikulášek who will celebrate a Mass before its opening (at 6:00 PM) at the Spiritual Centre.
15th August 2008, 11:00 AM
In the third part of the series about the Czech candidates for beatification and canonization we would like to introduce to you four people connected with the Brno diocese who – physically or spiritually – defied the criminal regimes of their time: Sister Marie Restituta Kafková executed in 1943 in Vienna, Mother Vojtěcha Hasmandová imprisoned in the 50s, Jan Bula one of the three priests executed within the so called Babice trial in the years 1951-1952 and finally, Tomáš Maria Týn who offered himself as a voluntary victim for freeing Czechoslovakia from communism.
Brno: The first from the four candidates is the beatified Sister Marie Restituta Kafková (1894-1943) whose impact is “divided” between the Brno diocese and the Vienna archdiocese. Although she was born in Brno, her family left after two years from her birth to Vienna where Helena Kafková spent the rest of her life. In 1914 she entered the Third order of St. Francis, she accepted the name Marie Restituta and she started to serve as a nurse. From 1919 she worked in the Vienna hospital called Lainz. Although very young, she soon gained respect and became the right-hand woman of the senior doctor. After the union of Austria with the German Reich an era of oppressing of the church began. Sister Restituta was arrested in February 1942 on the basis of an accusation that she copied a ridiculing poem against the regime. On 30th March 1943 she was guillotined. Thus, she became the only nun sentenced to death in a trial by the Nazis. Further she was the first martyr from the Vienna archdiocese that in 1988 commenced her beatification proceedings. Sister Restituta was beatified on 21st June 1998 in Vienna. Brno and Vienna dioceses commemorate her liturgically on 29th October.
The second nun is Mother Marie Vojtěcha Hasmandová (1914-1988) born Antonie. She came from Huštěnovice by Uherské Hradiště and when she was 13 she joined the Sisters of Mercy of St. Boromeo in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí. After graduation in 1933 she entered the congregation in Prague under the name Marie Vojtěcha. During the war she taught in Třeboň and Frýdlant and she worked as a hospital attendant in Slané. After the war she was headmistress in a school in Brno and in 1950 she became Mother Superior of an institute in Prachatice. In 1952 she was arrested and sentenced to 8 years for offering a hiding place to a priest. After having been released in 1960 she worked for 10 years in a charity house in Vidnava. In July 1970 she was elected a General Superior of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Boromeo and she led the congregation for 18 years until her death on 21st January 1988 in Znojmo. The diocese beatification proceedings of Mother Vojtěcha took place between the years 1996-2004 and the materials were consequently handed over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
The only one from the four candidates whose beatification proceedings are led directly by the Brno diocese is Jan Bula (1920-1952). He was born in Lukov near Moravské Budějovice and after his studies at a Brno grammar school he entered a seminary. He was ordained a priest in July 1945 and he was sent as a chaplain to Rokytnice nad Rokytnou near his place of birth where he intensively worked with the youth. After the death of the parish priest he became an administrator of the parish. In February 1951 his old classmate Ladislav Malý who pretended to be an agent of an American Secret service contacted him. He commissioned Bula to co-organize a transfer of the Prague archbishop Beran abroad. Due to a warning from another priest Bula refused Malý’s request and he was arrested on 30th April 1951. Two months later, on 2nd July 1951, there were shot three officials of the local National Committee in the nearby Babice; this operation, that stood at the beginning of the so called “Babice trial”, was probably planned by the Communist party to scare the local farmers. Jan Bula was accused of organizing an action with which he could not have anything in common and he was sentenced to death. On 20th May 1952 he was executed by hanging in the Jihlava jail. In 1990 his trial was reopened and Jan Bula was rehabilitated in full extent. His beatification proceedings were commenced in 2004 by the bishop of Brno, Vojtěch Cikrle.
The youngest from the four people from Brno diocese waiting to be beatified or even canonized is a Dominican priest Tomáš Josef Maria Týn (1950-1990). He came from Brno and in 1966 he was sent, for being an excellent student, to study at a grammar school in the French Dijon where he graduated in 1969. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the armies of the Warsaw Pact in August 1968 also his parents went abroad and they settled in Germany. Tomáš Týn entered the Dominican order in September 1969 and after his studies in Walberberg, Bologna and Rome he was ordained a priest on 29th June 1975 by the pope Paul VI. This day he also offered his life to God as a propitiatory sacrifice for freedom of the church in Czechoslovakia. The following years he taught theology and philosophy at the University of Bologna and he worked there as a spiritual. In October 1989 he was suddenly struck by severe pains and the doctors diagnosed him with malignant tumour metastases in the abdominal cavity. His parents – both doctors – had him transferred to Germany. Although the progressing metastases caused him more and more pain, he worked on his theological-philosophical piece Metafisica della sostanza until the very last moment. He died on 1st January 1990 at the hospital in Heidelberg and he was buried four days later in Neckargemünd. The diocese phase of the beatification proceedings was commenced on 25th February 2006 in Bologna in the presence of representatives from the Czech Dominican province.
Catholic weekly 27/2010
On the day of the celebration of the birth of John the Baptist, 24th July, Brno diocese recalled 90 years from the birth of the priest-martyr Jan Bula (1920-1952). Surprisingly, many people attended a professional conference about his life and the circumstances of the communistic terror victim of which Jan Bula became. Consequently, an exhibition was opened about Bula’s life and death in the St. Peter and Paul’s cathedral. This exhibition is going to last until 31st July.
Karel Orlita, the judicial vicar of the Brno diocese, spoke at the meeting about the process of Jan Bula’s canonization proceedings that last already for six years. He confirmed that by the current interrogations done by experts the proceedings at the Brno court enter its final phase. There are also debates about whether it would be appropriate to add to this case two more innocent priests Václav Drbola and František Pařil who were also executed on the basis of fabricated trials after the so called “Babice events”. Even some eyewitnesses appeared at the conference. Except for the words of appreciation regarding Jan Bula there were also heard terrible testimonies about the terrors of the 50s. For example, in such a small village as Rokytnice nad Rokytnou 60 people yielded to pressure and they signed the appeal for the death sentence of their priest. “There were also several parishioners who came to spit at him during the trial”, stated one of the eyewitnesses. During the ceremonial Mass celebrated by the bishop of Brno, Vojtěch Cikrle, the vicar-general Jiří Mikulášek spoke about the sacrifice of all the faithful catholic clergymen. “Both the opening of the exhibition and the powerful service brought me to the times of childhood,” confesses Petr Fruhwirt from Tišnov and he (the ex-mayor of the town Tišnov) explains, “Merely two weeks after the death of Jan Bula, my father was arrested. He got 11 years. Afterwards I went through the hard experience of the arrest of two of my Boy Scout friends and the imprisonment of other relatives. I am happy that my nephews can live in freedom now. I wish them, however, to know more about the past and to realize the monstrosity of the totalitarian ideologies”.
