(Prepared by P. Gorazd, O.Carm.)
Those of you who have become acquainted with the life and service of P. Metoděj Minařík (1912–2003) may have noticed that in addition to caring for Carmelite vocations among men, P. Metoděj, in the 1970s and 1980s, also tried to reach out to women who would like to become Carmelite sisters and would have entered the convent under normal circumstances. However, the free life of religious communities was not possible in our country at that time. Father Metoděj not only maintained contact with the Discalced Carmelite sisters who had been displaced from Prague to Jiřetín pod Jedlovou in the North Bohemian border region, but also helped to ensure that a women's Carmel was created within the original branch of the order.
At that time, Father Metoděj accepted religious vows from several Carmelite sisters (of the so-called second order), who nevertheless continued to live separately, each in her own home. P. Metoděj provided them with the most thorough education for consecrated life during occasional meetings and imparted respect for Carmel and zeal for it.1
One of these sisters, Vlasta Pastyříková, passed away in the autumn of this year, and on this occasion, we can reflect on the testimony of her life and vocation.
She was born on May 17, 1919, in Jamné near Jihlava. Her maiden name was Brabcová. Her father ran a tavern and a shop, while her mother was a homemaker. The parents had two daughters in total. A favored distant relative was the father’s brother – a priest: Jan Brabec, a dean in Hradec Králové, who always visited them during the holidays. Her father came from a family of nine children and they all maintained their faith in adulthood, even after achieving a good position – "they were gentlemen".
Vlasta studied at a teaching institute in Hradec Králové and lived at her uncle’s deanery. She spent a total of five years there. She studied a preparatory year and then four years at the institute itself. In her second year of study, when she was 18 years old, she wanted to enter the convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Prague. According to her own memories, she knew nothing specific about life in the convent or about Carmel, but she had a sudden thought to apply to the convent.
Her uncle discouraged her and advised her to wait. But the main obstacle turned out to be something else.
I did not get to Carmel because I did not have a dowry. I still remember that abbess from Carmel who had such beautiful, exemplary handwriting; it's a pity I burned those letters from Carmel. How sorry I was that it was all for nothing, so I grabbed everything and burned it. I shouldn't have done that... At that time it was necessary to have a dowry, I don't remember how much. When I studied before, where would I have gotten that much money? My parents did not have it either, so I could not go to the convent...2
After graduating in 1942, she went to Polná and began teaching at a boys' school – children from the first grade. After two years, she was transferred to another school. She spent five years in Polná and lived there at the deanery again. Because there was an excess of teachers, she supplemented her necessary qualifications and also taught religion – children from the fifth to the eighth grade at a city school in Polná. She rode her motorcycle to teach in surrounding villages.
Then she got married. Her husband was a principal for some time, and she, as a teacher, was his subordinate. Their marriage was happy, but they had no children. Later, however, she did not want to talk much about her marriage. Being a teacher during the totalitarian regime was not easy with her beliefs. She remembered that: Then I was transferred (from place to place), but that is beside the point... She worked as a teacher her whole life until her retirement.
When her husband passed away around 1980, her desire to be a Carmelite resurfaced. She reached out in writing to P. Metoděj. She found his contact and wrote to him. They corresponded and he came to Polná. It was just at the celebration of All Saints, and thus P. Metoděj laughed and said to her: “To whom God gives, all the saints.” He then accepted her into the scapular brotherhood at the deanery office.
This marked the beginning of their contact and secret religious formation. She made her temporary vows on July 21, 1986, and her perpetual vows on July 23, 1989. The religious name of Archangel was given to her by P. Metoděj; she stated that she would not have thought of such a name herself. In the twilight of her life, she could no longer remember why he gave her that name: by this name he gave her the Carmelite saint for a patron – blessed Archangel Girlani.
In the context of the education for religious life that P. Metoděj provided to her, she then began to travel on pilgrimages to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Kostelní Vydří. That was all done secretly. After each pilgrimage, P. Metoděj dedicated several days to the sisters; they also cleaned up after the pilgrimage. (This corresponds to the terms of her vows.)
With Maruška Macháčová, who was later appointed superior of the sisters – even during the time of totalitarianism – Vlasta corresponded for a long time when Maruška was ill. We understood each other. She was so unassuming, just like Father Metoděj. He was also shy, such a humble person...
She got to know the other Carmelite sisters when she participated in their meetings led by P. Metoděj and later by P. Vojtěch Kodet.
Throughout her life, she maintained a free-spirited, cheerful disposition. She rejoiced in life, and her faith was also joyful. Therefore, for the sisters and those who knew her, she was simply "Vlastička". At that time, the Carmelites did not even have habits. They were just having them made. Vlastička fondly recalled how P. Vojtěch came dressed in his first habit and asked her how she liked it: “What do you think of it?” And she humorously replied: “I like that Carmelite.”
When in 1991 the General Prior P. John Malley and P. Redempt Valabek came to Czechoslovakia, they met with the sisters and discussed whether they would try to live together as a community and then establish a convent. However, the older sisters did not want to, as they were only a few years away from retirement, they did not know if they could still accept such a significant change at their age, and they did not want to expose themselves to existential uncertainty. Vlasta Pastyříková then felt it was her obligation to care for her sister and her daughter. And the General of the Order allowed her to continue living as a Carmelite outside the community and not to go to the initial formation in the convent in Italy.
In 1993, from those applying for religious life in Carmel who did not want to live in permanent enclosure, the community of the Sisters of Our Lady, Queen of Carmel was established in the convent in Vydří. P. Vojtěch looked after them. Vlasta Pastyříková remained on the sidelines. In the twilight of her life, she recalled:
I did not bear that well. But Father Metoděj, he corresponded with me, so I was not alone. I love him. And I am glad that I love him.
(This is how vividly she recalled him and spoke of him, even several years after his death.) From the Carmel circle, P. Vojtěch visited her occasionally, along with a few closest acquaintances.
She lived with her relatives and remained completely self-sufficient until a very old age. Then she fell and broke her pelvic bones. According to doctors, there was no hope that she would ever walk again. After her release from the acute department, she still had to spend some time in the long-term care unit of the Jihlava Hospital, but the environment there among apathetic grandmothers was suffocating for her – she was losing interest in living – and she would have probably died there soon. Her relatives took her back to Jamné, to her parental home, where she then lived as a bedridden patient in her own little apartment. The change of environment helped her greatly; she completely revived as if rejuvenated. She lived again as a joyful, truly happy person. She rejoiced in God's things, but she also remembered that she loved to dance and enjoyed brass band music.
When her relatives could no longer care for her because they had to travel to distant jobs, she went to a Senior Home in the nearby Ždírec. There she felt quite well and was soon liked by both the patients and the staff. And sometimes it happened that she taught some of her roommates how to pray.
Somewhere at the beginning of 2015, her strength began to leave her gradually: she could not read, she stopped corresponding, and gradually began to lose interest in earthly things... Nevertheless, she remained very patient and calm. She passed away on September 11, 2015, in the Senior Home in Ždírec. The funeral mass was held on Saturday, September 19, 2015, in Jamné near Polná.
I would like to add a few pieces of her wisdom and piety that she expressed on the sidelines of the memories I requested from her. They are simple, beautiful, and I believe also instructive. They can inspire us to be grateful for her testimony and to be determined to fill our own unique story of life and faith with similar simplicity and love.
- Love does not die. Only people do.
- I was "obsessed" with poetry. Poetry is hidden theology, as someone said. (Her poetry consisted of lyrics from songs: folk, church, and popular.)
- (When I asked her about details from her life that she could no longer remember, she said:) You know, certain things I no longer need to know. I knew it, I know it – something is built in me that cannot be so easily dismantled.
- I do not bother to think about what to ask for in prayer. I always ask for love. There is a shortage of it.
- God loves me. I have many proofs!
