By Jan Chryzostom Cardinal Korec,. S. J.
Edited by Ivan Reguli, Emil Vontorcik, Richard Gaughran
Translated by Jeff Schmitz, Peter-Paul Siska, Richard Gaughran

Description

Foreword by Theodore Cardinal McCarrick
Introduction by Viliam Judak
Epilogue by Peter Liba
Indices by Eva Vicelova
Footnotes by Emil Vontorcik

Another totalitarian system began vigorously marching across the borders of Central Europe. The violent collectivization, mandatory atheist education, crude interrogations and imprisonment were just a few of the many experiences that profoundly affected the life of Slovak people. Cardinal Korec's book leads us vividly in the middle of this reality. Night of the Barbarians is an honest and sincere account of events as they began to unfold in front of the author's eyes beginning the night of April 13, 1950 and ending December 8, 1968.

Special Features

• English version
• New Foreword
• Introduction
• Notes
• Epilogue
• Indicies
• Bibliography
• Cardinal's Bio-Bibliography
• Color Photographs

Comments and Reviews

Reprinted with permission from Slovo, the journal of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Winter 2004/2005, Volume 5, Number 2, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
THE NIGHT OF THE BARBARIANS: MEMOIRS OF THE COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF THE SLOVAK CARDINAL

Following the collapse of Communism in 1989, many of the clergy who had resisted collaborating with the fallen regime became leaders within the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. In 1991, Pope John Paul II promoted one such Slovak, the bishop of the diocese of Nitra, Ján Chryzostom Korec, to the College of Cardinals. As a result of his unwillingness to compromise with the communist authorities, Cardinal Korec had become one of the most prominent leaders of the underground Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. The Night of the Barbarians is his memoir of persecution and ministry in Czechoslovakia from the Stalinist repression of the early 1950s to the political liberalization of the Prague Spring in 1968. First published in Slovak in 1990 (Od barbarskej noci, Bratislava: Lúč, 1990), the 2002 publication of this translation makes available to the English-reading, non-specialized audience an insightful look at one of the most difficult periods in recent Czecho-Slovak history.

The title, The Night of the Barbarians, refers to the events that Cardinal Korec experienced as a student at the Jesuit seminary in Trnava on April 13, 1950. That evening, the police and militia attempted to liquidate the male religious orders throughout Czechoslovakia. Cardinal Korec describes how he, his fellow students and professors were herded into buses and transported to one of several “concentration monasteries.” Though he was released after a few months due to health problems, many of his colleagues received prison sentences and/or were assigned to labor camps. The elimination of the monasteries was one component of a broader communist program to decapitate and control the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. In spite of the persecution, Cardinal Korec makes it clear, he and other clergy unwilling to collaborate with the communist authorities found new avenues to pursue their ministry. In 1951, he was secretly consecrated as a Bishop at the age of 27. During the remainder of the decade he worked a number of jobs outside of the church while secretly fulfilling his duties as a bishop by writing prayers and meditations, helping seminary students complete their training, and ordaining priests (over 120 secret ordinations by 1989). Arrested and charged with treason in 1960, he served eight years of a 12-year prison sentence.

Cardinal Korec vividly describes many of the people he encountered during this time of persecution, including fellow priests and bishops, coworkers, police investigators, prison guards and cellmates, thus offering a testament to those who suffered for their faith and an indictment of those who collaborated or implemented the party-state’s policies. Cardinal Korec diverges from the narrative of his persecution to describe his childhood and decision to become a Jesuit priest and presents the reader with a brief history of Christianity in Slovakia. On a more controversial subject, Cardinal Korec offers a defense of Monsignor Jozef Tiso’s and the Catholic Church’s role regarding the deportation of the Jews during the Second World War. While these discussions are informative, some transitions from the main narrative are confusing and awkward.

Though the reader may be disappointed not to learn the specific details of his secret consecration as a bishop or other aspects of the underground church, it is important to remember that Cardinal Korec finished this memoir in 1976, 13 years before the Velvet Revolution, at a time when such revelations could have had negative consequences for those involved. Extensive footnotes provide a helpful guide to understanding many of the people, places, terms, and organizations mentioned in the text. The preface and accompanying essays by scholars at Slovak and North American universities further inform the reader about Cardinal Korec’s work and the repression of the Catholic Church during this period.

Reviewed by David Doellinger

I have read your book entitled The Night of the Barbarians in a Polish edition. I have seen it before in the Slovak original, but reading one's mother tongue is always preferable. Thank you very much, Lord Cardinal, that you eternalized your memories of your eight-year imprisonment under the communist oppression in this book. These experiences are very similar to those which we have already learned from the testimonies of our natives, first at consentration camps, such as Dachau, and then from prisons and camps in the Soviet Union or in the countries of the so-called Block.

This testimony is extremely needed. It was beneficial that many witnesses could meet in L'ublin and then at Jasna Gora on August 15, 1991. Now we expect the testimonies from the period after the year 1968. And these are the particular years when you, Lord Cardinal, became an extraordinary and important witness for the Church in Slovakia and also a spiritual backing for your native citizens.

I wish you, Lord Cardinal, God's blessing and the permanent protection of the Mother of God.

— Pope John Paul II
The Vatican
May 18, 1994

The outstanding personality of Jan Chryzostom Cardinal Korec guided the Slovak Nation and the Catholic Church in Slovakia through their most difficult times. It was typical for this period that Christians, particularly the youth in academia, initiated the strongest demonstrations of resistance against communist totalitarianism. At the beginning of this opposition in 1947 a procession, by way of the cross, was held in Bratislava, a rather ominous but true premonition of things to come, and towards the end in 1988 the so-called candle demonstration took place in Bratislava, a Slovak metropolitan city. This demonstration was brutally suppressed by communist police. Cardinal Korec guided his severely tested Church through every historical milestone of this figurative way of the cross, not missing even one stop. He taught, consecrated, served, educated, encouraged, and warned. Today we are thankful to him for his example and the stand he took, even here in the Czech Republic, where he survived the most crucial moments of his life in Valdice prison.

— Vaclav Havel
Prague
February 4, 1999

Two unique and outstanding history coverages may not find use in every collection; but any collection with in-depth focus on Eastern Europe will find these essential editions. Particularly important is Slovak History: Chronology And Lexicon (086-5164444, $59.00), an important chronology of events which attempts to fill the gap in literature on Slovak history. The coverage records Slovak history chronologically up through 1998, then offers an encyclopedia dictionary with over three hundred entries outlining the important concepts and events of the region. Jan Chryzostom Cardinal Korec, S.J.'s Night Of The Barbarians: Memoirs Of The Communist Persecution Of The Slovak Cardinal (086-5165378, $24.95) provides the author's memoirs of the Communist persecution of the Slovak Cardinal. Cardinal Korec guided his Church and took a dangerous stand in the Czech republic, one which resulted in his imprisonment. This provides his personal observation of events which shaped Eastern Europe. Both are quite specific but powerful additions to any in-depth collection on the region.

—Midwest Book Review
April 2003