Fr Titus Zeman was born into a Christian family on 4 January 1915 at Vajnory, near Bratislava. He wanted to become a priest from 10 years of age and completed his secondary school and sixth form studies with the Salesians in Šaštín, Hronský Svätý Benedikt and Frištak u Holešova; in 1931 he made his novitiate and on 7 March 1938 made his Perpetual Profession at the Sacred Heart in Rome.
A student of theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and then in Chieri, he spent his spare time carrying out his apostate in the Oratory. In Turin, on 23 June 1940, he achieved his long-held goal of priestly ordination at the hands of Cardinal Maurizio Fossati. On 4 August 1940, in Vajnory, his home town he said his first mass.
When in April 1950 the Czechoslovak communist regime forbade religious orders and began deporting religious men and women to concentration camps it became necessary to organise in secret journeys to Turin to enable religious to complete their studies. Fr Zeman took on this dangerous task.
The Servant of God organised two expeditions for over 60 young Salesians. At the third attempt Fr Zeman, together with those escaping were arrested. He was subjected to a hard trial, during which he was described as a traitor to the fatherland and a Vatican spy, and even risked death. On 22 February 1952, in consideration of some attenuating circumstances he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Fr Zeman came out of prison on remand only after 12 years incarceration on 10 March 1964. Indelibly marked by the sufferings endured in prison he died five years later on 8 January 1969, surrounded by the glorious reputation of a martyr and a saint.
Fr Titus Zeman is the 172nd “special ones” of the Salesian Family and the 28th Servant of God. In the next few weeks in the diocese of Bratislava, where the Servant of God died, the opening session of the diocesan process will be celebrated.
Published 19/02/2010
