On the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola and at the end of the Ignatian Year, the Slovak Province celebrated one hundred years of the arrival of the Jesuits in Ružomberok.

The celebration started with a Holy Mass in the Jesuit Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated by the Apostolic Administrator of the Spiš Diocese Mons. Ján Kuboš. The celebration was attended by the Provincial, Father Jozef Šofranko, Jesuits from other communities and many other guests and faithful from Ružomberok.

In the afternoon, the program continued with a historical presentation: the history of the Jesuits in Ružomberok, important personalities of the Jesuit community. The presentations were followed by an organ concert. The celebration culminated with a common agape in the Jesuit community. The program was accompanied by music and recitation of poems by the Servant of God Tomáš Munk.

Tomáš Munk

The Jesuits came to Ružomberok on August 5, 1922, where they took over the former Piarist house. In 1930 the novitiate, which had been in Trnava until then, was moved to Ružomberok. The novitiate formed many important personalities of the Slovak Jesuit Province; from the local novitiate Tomáš Munk, a Jewish convert, was forcibly taken by German soldiers and, together with his father František, was shot on 22 April 1945 during the so-called Death March (forced evacuations of concentration camp). The process of their beatification is currently in progress.

In 1933, a retreat house was also opened. Priests, nuns, teachers, men and women, members of various religious communities, even Slovak Christian politicians held their spiritual exercises here.

The Jesuit community and the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross became the spiritual centre of the region.

The communist regime

The activities of the Jesuits in Ružomberok were forcibly interrupted by the communist regime, which in 1950 suppressed all religious orders in the then Czechoslovakia.

During communism, a diagnostic centre for children and adolescents was set up in the house. After the political changes in 1989, religious life was restored. The house in Ružomberok was also restored to the Slovak province. Gradually, spiritual life and pastoral activity began to grow again. In 2001, the novitiate was again moved from Trnava to Ružomberok. It was common to both the Slovak and Czech provinces until 2021, when it officially ceased to function.

At present, various communities meet in the Jesuits house and Jesuits serve the faithful in the Church. The Ruzomberok community cooperates pastorally with the Catholic University of Ruzomberok.

Info: Peter Buša, Branislav Dado

Foto: Pavol Lajčiak