Awhile ago, I wrote about a North Dakota priest who also my mother’s childhood priest.
(see: The North Dakota Priest Who Escaped the Nazis and Communists)
Unbelievable story! Recently however, an individual from Czechia reached out to me and said he had a little more information and lots of photos of that same priest, named Father Ludvik Sventinsky.
My name is Dalibor and I live in Czechia. I found your blog by searching Fr. Světinský, which I did to obtain more information on him after his immigration. I research my family history and genealogy for several years. The photos attached are mostly of his first mass in his native village Dolní Němčí, which was a glorious event with lots of celebrating and traditional folk attire. He ran away immediately after the end to escape the state agents that were after him. He crossed the border along with his brother and sister somewhere in the deep woods of the Bohemian Forest in the southwest, getting to Bavaria. One of the photos is him in Mauthausen after the war. The photo with a bishop is likely from the US.
Father Ludvik would be Dalibor’s first cousin twice removed, or his grandmother’s cousin. Thank you Dalibor for sharing his life and your family heritage with us, I am so grateful!
His life is a testament to Christian courage . I also love as evidenced by these photos, the centrality of Christ to those communities.
May God inspire us to carry on with the same courage in our daily lives!
