Priest (January 20, 2001)
A missionary of Christ
The Servant of God Fr. Ignatius Stuchly was born in Boleslaw, in the province of Silesia, at that time part of Prussia, on December 14, 1869, into a large family of peasant farmers. A young man tenacious in his commitment and firm in hope, he was accepted among the Salesians in 1894. He arrived in Turin on September 8 and went through the stages of formation in Valsalice and Ivrea.
Fr. Stuchly was in contact with the great Salesians of the first generation. Initially intended for the missions, by order of Fr. Rua the Servant of God remained in Italy and prepared to support the growth of Salesian works in the Slavic regions of Europe. He was sent to Gorizia (1897-1910); Ljubljana and Verzej, Slovenia, until 1924; then, from 1925 to 1927, he was in Perosa Argentina in the civil province of Turin, where he guided the formation of candidates for the Salesian Congregation who would eventually bolster the SDB presence in Northern Europe. In 1927, he returned to his homeland, to Frystak, and there he also held governing positions, including service as provincial, starting in 1935.
After the broader consequences of the Balkan War and World War I, he faced both World War II and the spread of Communist totalitarianism. In both cases, Salesian works were requisitioned and the confreres enlisted or dispersed; Fr. Stuchly saw the work to which he had dedicated his life suddenly destroyed. Forty days before the fateful “Night of the Barbarians,” in March 1950, he suffered a stroke. The lively esteem he had always aroused in his superiors, and his great ability to love and be loved, flourished more than ever in his reputation for holiness. He died peacefully on the evening of January 17, 1953. Treasurer, prefect, vice director, director, provincial, the Servant of God held positions of responsibility for a large part of his life. A little like Blessed Fr. Rua, whom he took as a model, he was considered a “living rule,” an effective witness to the spirit of Don Bosco capable of transmitting that spirit to subsequent generations.
A man who lived in many different geographical, linguistic, and cultural regions (such as today’s Moravia, Bohemia, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, and Italy), even in border lands, the Servant of God is proposed today as a man of peace, unity, and reconciliation among peoples.
