Fr. Ignatius Stuchly Is Venerable

 Fr. Ignatius Stuchly Is Venerable

(ANS - Vatican City – December 23, 2020) – On December 21, 2020, the Holy Father received Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in audience. During the audience, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation to promulgate the decree concerning the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Ignatius Stuchly, priest of the Society of St. Francis de Sales. Ven. Stuchly was born on December 14, 1869, in Boleslaw in the former Prussian Silesia (now part of Poland), and died in Lukov, Czechoslovakia, on January 17, 1953.

Ignatius was born into a large family of peasants. He had a first intense experience of faith at school, where the teacher, Jan Kolibaj, much in love with our Lady, urged him about a priestly vocation. His rather precarious health suddenly improved when a “folk healer” changed his diet. This healer also prophesied his priesthood. This dream could be fulfilled only many years later, not without some difficulties due to external and independent circumstances.

Many spoke to him about Don Bosco and, after various vicissitudes, in 1894 Ignatius was welcomed in Turin and accompanied on his vocational journey by Fr. Michael Rua. He was an aspirant in Valsalice. There he met the Venerable Fr. Andrew Beltrami, who left a permanent impression on his journey of faith and his mission. In 1895 he entered the novitiate at Ivrea. On the eve of his vows, he experienced a moment of vocational crisis, which he overcame thanks to the paternal help of Fr. Rua, who urged him to make his perpetual profession immediately, which he did on September 29, 1896.

In 1901 Ignatius Stuchly was ordained a priest by the archbishop of Gorizia (in Venetia Julia), Cardinal Missia. Until 1910 he dedicated himself to poor children, distinguishing himself as a sought-after confessor and expert spiritual guide. These were years of sacrifice but of great spiritual fruit for vocations. Then he went to Slovenia, between Ljubljana and Verzej, until 1924, dedicating his energies to the maintenance of the Salesian works and the construction of the beautiful shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Ljubljana. From 1925 to 1927 he returned to Italy in Perosa Argentina (Turin), where he was in charge of the formation of young people from his native lands, Bohemia and Moravia, in order to graft the Salesian Congregation “in the North,” according to the prophetic words given to him years earlier by Fr. Rua. In 1927 he returned to Frystak in his homeland, where he held Salesian government posts, including the office of provincial, from 1935 (Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia), and saw an extraordinary flowering of the Salesian presence. He faced both the World War II and the spread of Communist totalitarianism. In both cases, the Salesian works were requisitioned and the confreres enlisted or dispersed; Fr. Stuchly suddenly saw the work to which he had consecrated his life destroyed.

Forty days before the fateful “Night of the Barbarians,” in March 1950, he was struck by apoplexy. He spent the last three years of his life, first in the retirement home in Zlin, then in Lukov, always guarded by the regime and isolated from his brothers. Thus his prophecy that he would die alone was fulfilled; but around his bed, peace and joy flourished, which he radiated in abundance. The very high esteem that he had always aroused in superiors, and his great ability to love and be loved, flourished more than ever in his reputation of holiness. He died peacefully on the evening of January 17, 1953.

Treasurer, prefect, vice director, director, provincial, the Venerable Servant of God held positions of responsibility for a large part of his life. A bit like Blessed Fr. Rua, whom he took as an example, Fr. Stuchly was considered a “living rule,” an effective witness to the spirit of Don Bosco, capable of passing it on to subsequent generations, in very different contexts from 19th-century Turin. “Ignatius Stuchly was a religious who did not write ‘Rules’ but obeyed them.” In difficult contexts and facing them with great faith and hope, he leaves us a message of great relevance: “We work while it is day. When the night arrives, the Lord will take care of it.”

Website: https://istuchly.cz/