SM. Richardis Nováková, SCB
We moved to Kostelní Vydří "on the Hill" to a school where my father got a position as a principal teacher (in 1939). The whole family rejoiced that we would be near Our Lady, to whom we used to go on pilgrimages from Malý Pěčín, where my father had taught before. We soon became friends with the residents of the monastery, namely with Father Prior Prokop Valena, Father Metoděj Minařík, with the parish housekeeper M. Srbová, the cousin of the prior, with the prior's father, who managed the farm, and with the servant Anna, who was not quite normal and fell in love with our mother, to whom she would confide her heart and complain about the cook and the old gentleman.
Besides the rectory and the school, the hill also included the cottages of Běhanova, Peclova, Polákova, and Karáskova. There were children everywhere, so it was lively on the hill during our free days.
The friendship between the rectory and the school was of a familial spirit, everyone helped each other. Camaraderie was maintained also by more frequent gatherings – evening recreation. We had a radio with short waves to listen to foreign broadcasts, which was strictly monitored during the war. But there were no secrets among us.
Father Prior Valena and Father Metoděj were of completely different characters and abilities. They complemented each other. We liked Father Metoděj for his kind, quiet nature; I see him as someone always listening with his head slightly bowed, a sweet smile, and hands folded under the scapular. He hailed from Slavičín, where he would go every year for vacation. That was far for us kids. One time we asked him what led him to the Carmelites all the way to Vydří. He said that it was reading the book of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, "Story of a Soul."
Because no entertainment was allowed during the war, the youth did not know what to do with their free time. They began to cultivate culture and sports. The prior practiced, especially in winter, theatrical plays, and in the summer, volleyball tournaments were held. (There was no field for soccer.) In this game, Father Metoděj excelled and was the backbone of the team. He always played in a habit during practice, which he only took off during matches with outside teams. Even without sports clothing, he performed in ways that were admired by both the team and the youth, the boys from Vydří. He also played with us in May and always won various boys' races; no one could outrun him. This certainly increased his authority among the altar boys. But the boys also liked to kneel near his confessional, trusting him.
For us, the three principal children, he was a helper in learning and writing assignments; when in the last years of the war there were long winter vacations, we went once a week for assignments we had to complete at home. Father Metoděj was knowledgeable in both Latin and higher mathematics, and he thoroughly explained many things to us, so we learned more than in school.
I also remember how different they were with the prior in church services; Father Metoděj was not a singer and had no musical ear. Still, on holidays he had to perform a sung Mass because the prior directed the choir, often playing at the same time. The choir was village-based. A large part of it consisted of our family with all the singing voices. Father Metoděj's singing was often truly awkward, and it must have been very humbling for him, but he bore it without excuses. Likewise, during his sermons, there were times when he got stuck and could not go on, turning red and feeling awkward, while the prior preached easily, with delivery, on any topic. Yet the people preferred Father Metoděj's sermons. The strength of his inner life made up for what was lacking in outward form.
From my childhood, I had absolute trust in Father Metoděj and gladly went to him for confession, as he always knew how to advise me like a friend.
Mother also loved St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Joseph, and the Carmelite spirituality deeply attracted her. One day, while cleaning the oratory, she found the rule for the Third Order of Carmel. She immediately grasped it since it fulfilled her desire for a religious life. Father agreed, and Father Metoděj advised her and also received her into the Third Order in 1947. It was not long before I left for the Borromean Sisters in Prague. My younger brother and I were at her profession in the church in front of the altar of Our Lady. She took the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Order's commitments, which were then quite strict, with fasting three times a week, with a belt that she did not take off even at night, with daily prayer of the little Marian hours, and the holy hour from Thursday to Friday in church. We had a key to the choir because boys would go there to practice the organ or ring the bells, so she could go there independently. When I was sent to Prague for a month for vacation after a year of candidacy, I would go to those adorations with her. At eleven o'clock, even Father Metoděj would come through the sacristy, kneel at the altar, pull the hood over his head, and without moving knelt until midnight... When my mother first came to Prague to see me, she sadly told me that Father Metoděj had strictly told her not to come to him for confession anymore and to find another confessor, perhaps in Dačice at the monastery. So she would go to the Franciscans in Dačice, wondering what she might have done to Father Metoděj; she was not aware of any wrongdoing. But since he wished it that way, she complied. A year later, she came joyfully, saying that she could again go to Father Metoděj for confession because he told her it was a test, as she was doing novitiate. She could thus also take her vows. When exactly that was, I do not know. I also do not know how much she could keep everything in recent years; she held the holy hour at home when they had to leave Vydří and the church was far away. She died at the age of sixty-six, was buried in a Carmelite habit, and all three of the then-Carmelites were at her funeral. It was in 1968.
Due to various events in the following years, namely the fifties and later, I lost contact with Father Metoděj. After 1968, we opened a novitiate in Moravské Budějovice. That was not so far from the beloved Our Lady of Carmel, so with my novices, I would make several private pilgrimages to Vydří, sometimes by car, sometimes on foot from Bílek. Once it was before the feast of Our Lady of Carmel, and to my great joy, Father Metoděj was in Vydří. I asked him to clothe the sisters in the holy scapular. He did this after a beautiful and rich talk about Our Lady. He spoke fluently and spontaneously, and none of us noticed that it had been a full two hours. Since then, I have written to him on the feast days and looked forward to his replies, not lengthy but substantial, which always included a loving thought of Our Lady.
When Father Metoděj turned eighty, I visited him in Dobrá Voda and was delighted that he was still in good health. When I came to our community in Hradiště, Vydří was closer again, so I visited him several times. It was interesting that the conversation with him always turned to Our Lady, which was also dear to me. We both realized that through her we had received many graces. For me, his life was actually a grace.
Only when I was in the convent did I retrospectively realize many things. Among other things, his almost heroic fidelity to the order, when he seemed to be misunderstood by his superiors and humiliated by the civil staff at the rectory. And yet he never complained. When he was sometimes humiliated in our presence, he turned red, smiled, and acted as if nothing had happened. But the prior also knew well about his virtues. About a year before his death, when he was in the hospital in Brno, my brother and I visited him. When he saw us, he called out with his characteristic humor: "Look at me! Father Metoděj was seriously ill; I wrote to Rome that he was probably going to die, so they should prepare for beatification, and he is running around healthy while I am lying here." It was said in jest, but it contained an appreciation of his brother.
If the Carmelite community in Kostelní Vydří has flourished again, I am convinced that it is a reward for Father Metoděj for his fidelity to his religious vocation and to Our Lady. I remember the quiet sighs of the prior when he, a great optimist, expressed concern that the Carmelites in the Czech Republic would become extinct. Therefore, it is a joy for me – and not only for me – to see a row of young faces in the holy vestment of Our Lady in the sanctuary of the Vydří pilgrimage church.
May the Lord richly reward Father Metoděj with eternal life!
