Blessed Jan Bula and Václav Drbola

Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, priests of the diocese of Brno in Czechoslovakia, were imprisoned and killed between 1951 and 1952 in the persecution of the Catholic Church by the communist regime installed after the Second World War. Jan Bula was born on 24 June 1920 in the village of Lukov and was active in parish life from childhood; he entered the diocesan seminary of Brno in 1938, was forced by the German occupation to spend a year at forced labour in a ceramics factory, and was ordained on 29 July 1945. Assigned to the parish of Rokytnice nad Rokytnou, he was much appreciated for his work with the young, whom he gathered in the association Orel. Václav Drbola, born at Starovičky on 16 October 1912, entered the seminary of Brno in 1933 and was ordained on 5 July 1938, serving at Slavkov u Brna, Čučice and Bučovice with much youth and social work, and in March 1950 became administrator of the parish of Babice.

Both were judged dangerous by the regime for their pastoral zeal. Bula, arrested on 30 April 1951, was accused of inspiring the Babice killings of 2 July although he was already in prison, and was hanged on 20 May 1952; Drbola, arrested by deception on 17 June 1951 and charged with the same attack, was executed on 3 August 1951.