She sinned by divorce, as one of the first women in a Catholic village
Veronika Hamatová, née Marešová, was born into a peasant family on 15 February 1943 (officially registered on 1 April 1943) in Bígr (Bigăr), Banat, Romania. Her father worked in the Cozla coal mines, from where he returned for weekends. Veronika and her three older siblings grew up under the supervision of their mother, whom they had to help on the farm and in the fields. She attended the local school from 1950-1954 and after finishing school worked on her parents‘ farm. At the age of 18 she married and after 12 years of marriage she was one of the first women in the village to ask for a divorce, which was unusual in the local context (1970s) and her decision was not well received by the Christian community. Tragically, her ex-husband died a few years later in his home, where he burned to death in a drunken state. Veronika Hamatová raised her two sons and remarried three years after the divorce proceedings. However, the marriage was separated by her husband‘s death six years later. Veronika Hamatová worked all her life in agriculture in Bigr (Bigăr), where she still lives today (September 2023).