Legacy of the Priest

Our tale begins in a small town in Slovakia, in the shadows of the High Tatra mountains where each day was a matter of survival. The time was 1849 when the power of the Roman Catholic Church was declining. A young, unconventional priest was sent to a broken down abbey to restore the influence of the church. He started the rebuilding process when he found a baby on the door step of the church.

The priest decided to raise the boy in the abbey and to prepare him for the priesthood when the boy fell in love with a young woman. The priests battle between the love for the boy and the love for his God began. He fought the church and his superiors for the sake of the young man who, finally left his training for the priesthood and married the young lady; they had five sons and one daughter, raised in the shadow of the church.

Living under the yoke of the Austrian-Hungary Empire became more of pure survival. Trying to leave the country prior to the war became their primary goal. The family moved to the United States; one by one. Each one scrimped and saved to bring the next one over. World War I erupted and the youngest boy, Stefan was drafted into the army of the empire before he could take his parents to America. He fought in the war for which he has no sympathy and left his elderly parents in the hands of the hired help. He spent two years on the Russian front where he was wounded. After his recovery, he was sent to the Alps where he was captured and spent two years as an American prisoner of war

Stefan returned after he was released from prison and fell in love with the woman who had taken care of his mother and father. His father died and Stefan took his mother, his pregnant wife and came to America to be with his family. Their first born was delivered on a steamer half way across the Atlantic ocean. They finally landed in Boston to begin their life in the textile mills of Cohoes New York.

The story tells of the conflicts encountered in a rural area of eastern Europe. The infuence of the church and very strong family values which were brought to this country and are still a part of the lives of people who left the oppressions of Europe. Life was hard, but the family survived and this is what makes up the bulk of the population of our country today. It tells of the power and force that our forefathers had and the determination to come to this country so we could be born free.