by Bohumil Petrík
Žilina – In the Diocese of Žilina, Slovakia, the jubilee year of the death of Jesuit Vendelín Javorka has begun, under the motto “Be a missionary wherever you are.”
“He was not a hero according to the criteria of this world, but from the perspective of love for Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel,” writes Bishop Tomáš Galis of Žilina in his pastoral letter for the jubilee year.
Vendelín Javorka, Bishop Galis continues, “lived in a time of ideologies that advocated a Europe without God.” Today, he says, “there is another temptation: to forget our Christian roots, to resign ourselves to spiritual emptiness, to reduce faith to the level of intimacy.”
During the celebratory Mass marking the opening of the jubilee, Father Jozef Šofranko, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Slovakia, emphasized that Javorka was “profoundly Jesuit” and at the same time possessed unique qualities: “His path led him far beyond the borders of our country: to Rome, China, and Ukraine. He served the Church in its universality, immersed himself in other cultures, sought God in unexpected places, and bore witness to Him.”
Missionary in China and Ukraine, Rector in Rome
Vendelín Javorka was born in the small village of Černová, the home of his relative and priest Andrej Hlinka, who was called by many as the “Father of the Nation” and was active in public and political life before the Second World War.
Javorka joined the Society of Jesus, served as a chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian army, and subsequently became Rector of the Jesuit College in Trnava, in present-day Slovakia. In 1929, he was called to Rome to become the first Rector of the Russicum College. This college had been founded during the pontificate of Pius XI to provide pastoral care for Russians in the diaspora and Russian-speaking people in the Soviet Union.
“The Pope and the international capitalists are planning to infiltrate Soviet territory and prepare a counter-revolution,” Soviet propaganda at the time claimed about the College.
At that time, a small team of Jesuits published critical articles in various languages, including titles such as “Australia Under the Red Menace” and “The Communist Chameleon,” as can be read in Constantin Simon’s book, “Russicum: Pioneers and Witnesses of the Struggle for Christian Unity in Eastern Europe.”
Later, the Russicum housed both Catholic and Orthodox students, thus becoming a place of encounter between Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
After the rise of atheism, Pope Pius XI desired a spiritual renewal in Russia. He had already been involved in the country’s work, contributing to the establishment of the Pontifical Mission for the Relief of Hunger and the Pontifical Commission for Russia.
Javorka was the first Slovak Roman Catholic priest of the Latin Rite to master the Slavic-Byzantine Rite. He later served as a missionary in Harbin and Shanghai. In 1945, he was arrested in Ukraine, officially as an agent of a foreign power for spying for the Vatican. He was sentenced to ten years in the Gulag. After his release, he returned to Žilina , where he died.
The proclaimed Jubilee Year will also serve to gather materials and testimonies to prepare for the opening of the cause for canonization at the diocesan level.
Numerous church and cultural events are planned, including lectures on his life and missionary work, a photo exhibition, and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at Žilina Cathedral.
On the 60th anniversary of Javorka’s death, the second, expanded edition of his book “From Černová to Žilina, via Rome, Shanghai, and the Gulag” was published.
On March 24, the anniversary of his death, a Holy Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of the Patron Saints of Europe in the Vatican Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. Around twenty Slovaks attended, including Juraj Priputen, the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the Holy See.
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