Origins of his faith

“After that I began to be more interested in the matters of faith. My classmates began to disappear. A boy named Vojtěchovský had been sitting in front of me in the classroom. Then suddenly he stopped going to school. Later I learnt that his entire family had been executed. I realized that this might happen any time, that the Germans might decide to murder all people from this or that street. And I thought that for people who believed this was somehow easier to bear. So I started reading the Bible and some books on religion. I remember I was attracted by Blaise Pascal’s thoughts on religion. And I remember I decided that if I became a believer and they were then torturing me and killing me, I would be able to bear it better. And I arrived to the conclusion that God certainly exists. But I cannot say I would fear less. Only after the war I arrived to that understanding, to the immediate experience of God’s existence. That happened later.”

• born February 12, 1926 in Prague
• father was Serbian, mother Czech
• 1947–1953 studying orthodox spiritual academy in Leningrad
• 1958 ordained a priest
• twice threatened with the annulment of his state licence
• collaborating on the ecumenical translation and interpretation of the Old Testament
• had several books published (Touches from Elsewhere, Jesus´s Coming, Mystery of the Old Testament Prophecy)
• 1998 ordained a bishop
• 2000 the Holy Synod ordained him bishop of the Olomouc-Brno eparchy
• 2006 became an archbishop