Jan Zich

“I wouldn’t deny that he was authoritative [Miroslav Richter, the leader of the Community of Saint Gorazd and Companions] but to call it a sect, well, I don’t think so. The thing is, there was not much of a plurality in what to do, where to shift, it was not really possible. I didn’t know about many things because as we are talking about how the Communist structures disliked the community, there were some contacts with the underground Church, those were primarily Mirek’s contacts, many of us did not ever learn about this. About some coordination about services, prayer meetings or other events… So, I cannot even imagine that there would be much of a discussion how to deal with this. But, it was not that way that everyone will do what I say, it wouldn’t be like this. Maybe someone could feel this way but I did not.”

“Until I was about ten, I lived in a small village, at a farm, which was used to raise pigs for the local agricultural coop. Most of the time when we were not at school, we would run around the yard, with parental supervision or without, and we helped with various chores around the house. We raised all sorts of animals, chicken, sheep, and we helped mowing feed or turning grass or we did other tasks. And as it was indeed a small village, there was no other passtime, no youth union, no clubs. We used to go to school in the next village, about six kilometres away where we would go by bus.”