(ANS - Bratislava) - Last Sunday 30 November, the Salesians of Slovakia celebrated the centenary of the birth of a great Salesian figure, Fr Andrej Dermek (1914-2003). Among the guests for the occasion was Auxiliary Bishop Jozef Halko of Bratislava and who had been a student of Fr Dermek. The Province of Slovakia has also published a book on the preventive system, written by Fr Dermek in 1988.

  by Don Rastislav Hamracek, SDB

Fr Andrej Dermek was Provincial of the Salesians in Slovakia in the years 1968-1981, during the communist regime. Born 27 November 1914, he grew up in the Salesian house in Šaštín. After his formation he was ordained priest in 1942 and obtained his doctorate in theology. Then he worked as a professor of New Testament for Salesian students in Slovakia.

With the arrival of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1950, Fr Dermek was arrested together with all his confreres and all the religious of the country. After trial in 1952, he was sentenced by the regime to fourteen years in prison. After ten years, however, he was released in an amnesty. In 1968 he was appointed Provincial of the Salesians in Slovakia and from then on he lived and worked in hiding. With great spirituality, pastoral love and passion for education, he was able to influence strongly the lives of many people in the underground Church of Slovakia.

As well as his many spiritual, formative and theological writings, Fr Dermek wrote a short text on the Preventive System for his confreres on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Don Bosco in 1988,

After the collapse of the communist regime, Fr Dermek returned to teach New Testament at the theological faculty in Bratislava. He died on 22 November 2003 and was buried in Šaštín.

The celebration on 30 November last, on the centenary of his birth, was attended by many of the faithful, members of the Salesian Family,and friends and family of Fr Dermek, who gathered at the Provincial House of the Salesians in Bratislava. The guest of honour was Jan Figel, Vice-President of the national parliament.

During the celebrations, three people who had lived, worked and suffered alongside Fr Dermek offered their testimony. Bishop Halko, Auxiliary in Bratislava, a student of Fr Dermek at the Theological Faculty during the 90s, presided at a Mass in his memory. He stressed the imprisonment and suffering for the faith that Fr Dermek had undergone, as well as his sensitivity and loving kindness and his passion for education.

Published 05/12/2014