Sr. Pavla Křivánková, SCSC
In the legacy of Father Metoděj Minařík, there are reproduced photographs of Michaelka Hauková (1951–1957) and an image printed on the occasion of her funeral, containing data indicating that the girl died a year after her first holy communion. When I was searching for memories of Father Metoděj among the sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Kroměříž, because Fr. Metoděj was an accountant in Albrechtice nad Orlicí at a retirement home where they also worked, and served their community as a priest, Sister Pavla promised to provide me with more information about Michaelka. I would like to share it with you as well. The events that touched the forty-five-year-old Father Metoděj at that time may now come to our spiritual vision.
Michaelka Hauková was born on November 12, 1951, in Brno. She received her first holy communion at the age of four and a half on May 27, 1956. She received Christ in the Eucharist for the last time on July 7, 1957. She died on July 17, 1957, in Lukov near Zlín.
In the summer of 1957, Mrs. Růžena Hauková arrived with her two children, Michaelka and Jindřišek, to visit her relatives in Lukov near Zlín. Two sisters from the Fádler family in Lukov had married two brothers from the Hauka family in Brno. Both girls had attended elementary school with the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Lukov during their youth. Therefore, Mrs. Růžena visited the Sisters of the Holy Cross at the retirement home, which was established in the former orphanage Carolineum, on Sunday afternoon. We sat together in the garden by the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and talked. Soon, two young men, Josef Koláček, later active as a Jesuit priest in the Vatican Radio, and Ludvík Kolek, an artist known for interior decorations of churches, came to visit the Hauka family.
On July 17, 1957, in the afternoon, a boy ran into the office at the retirement home with the message: “Mrs. Hauková asks for the sisters to come to Saint John. Something has happened to Michaelka.” Two sisters immediately ran up Hradská Street towards the forest, where there was a statue of Saint John Nepomuk. They found Mrs. Hauková kneeling before little Michaelka’s body and praying the Our Father. What happened? That morning, Mrs. Hauková had gone to church for Mass. She did not wake Michaelka because she had had intestinal issues the day before. When the mother returned from church, she heard Michaelka’s silver voice singing from the room where they were staying: “Come to the Savior, come even today.” After lunch, the mother set out with the children to Saint John, sitting on logs and crocheting, while Jindřišek was sleeping peacefully in the stroller and Michaelka was running back and forth. At that moment, a cart with horses arrived, and the driver wanted to load logs from a pile that was somewhat higher. He called out to Mrs. Hauková: “Take the children away, so nothing happens.” Mrs. Hauková immediately stood up, but at that moment, a log rolled down and its end knocked Michaelka to the ground.
The sisters carried Michaelka to the nearby forest office and called for an ambulance. The crew determined that medical help was in vain and asked where to take the child. In the house where they lived, there was little space. Mrs. Hauková asked to take her to the sisters at the home. They asked the head of the institution, Mrs. Skoumalová, for her to be able to stay there until necessary arrangements were made. They laid Michaelka in the room of the superior sister, who was currently on vacation. A doctor came and asked where the parents were. Mrs. Hauková said: “I am the mother.” The doctor looked at her compassionately and said: “Madam, be brave!” “Don't be afraid,” replied Mrs. Hauková, “I am a believer.” The funeral service brought a coffin, the sisters decorated it, placed Michaelka's body inside, and took it to the home morgue. Mrs. Hauková wished for us to stop with the coffin in the chapel beforehand, place the coffin before the altar, and sing the song that was sung on the day of her first holy communion:
“And I want to have a heart full of lilies, I want to have a soul full of white roses.
Let me be always like the morning flower, I want to always sound like the song of the lark,
let me always be full of God's beauty, in my little heart let Jesus be the King.
And I want to be a child of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, infinitely beautiful.
Let my whole body belong to her, let my whole soul belong to her.
Let all my strengths serve her, in my little heart let Jesus be the King.”
The first concern was to inform the father. He was on a business trip in Southern Bohemia. It was difficult to establish a connection with him, and he set out on the journey to Lukov. He learned in the bus on the way from Zlín that Michaelka was dead. It was very hard for him to accept this fact.
The funeral took place at the Central Cemetery in Brno. Those who knew Michaelka remembered her as she devoutly participated with her mother in Eucharistic adorations at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, how deeply she experienced the narratives of Jesus' suffering, and how much she loved to pray the rosary to the Most Precious Blood: “Oh Jesus, cover the whole world with your precious blood. Wash away every stain of sin from it and renew it with the Holy Spirit.” And ten times: “My Jesus, forgiveness and mercy through your precious blood.”
Josef Koláček wrote a poem and some prose about her, which circulated in typewritten form. These materials are carefully kept by her sister, who was born after her death.
Lukov was far from Albrechtice, but there was undoubtedly a lively connection among the sisters of the same religious community. Probably through this channel, the news about Michaelka, her piety, and her unexpected departure also reached Fr. Metoděj. And it certainly intrigued him strongly as he spread and kept photographs of little Michaelka throughout his life. What did all this speak to him? Today we can only speculate. But certainly, he pondered it in the spirit of the Gospel.
Jesus loved children. He gave them to us as a model. He expressly taught that the last will be first, and the first will be last. He blessed those who have a pure heart and promised that they will see God. He promised that whoever eats his body has eternal life...
