St. Barbara Church & the College, Kutna Hora

  
CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1937, Scott 240, and BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA, 1939 and 1941, Scott 29, 53

The history of the Jesuits in the Czech Republic began in 1556, the year Ignatius died, when just months before his death he sent 12 Jesuits to Prague to a newly prepared home by St. Clement’s Church. The Bohemian Gothic Church of St. Barbara at Kutna Hora was granted to the Jesuits in 1626. At the right of the picture can be seen the corner tower of the Jesuit College attached to this church.

 
CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1949, the 7th centenary of the Czechoslovak mining industry, Scott 394
CZECH REPUBLIC, 2000, Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Scott 3056

The Jesuit University and Library, Olomouc

CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1966, the 4th centenary of the Research Library in Olomouc, Scott 1412

In 1566 a Jesuit Academy was founded in Olomouc and with it a library. In 1573 the Academy was raised to the status of a University, the second university in the Czech Lands after Charles University in Prague. Jesuits ran the University until the Suppression 200 years later. After the Suppression, in 1775, the University and its library were taken over by the state. It began to be shut down in 1848 to punish the students for their role in the revolution and by 1860 had ceased to operate. The Faculty of Theology, however, together with the University Library, continued in existence. In 1946 the Czechoslovak National Assembly voted to reestablish the University and gave it the name Palacký University. The library attached to the original academy and the university has become a public library, the second oldest and the third largest library of its kind in the Czech Republic. The above stamp in 1966 celebrated its 400th anniversary.

Bethlehem Chapel, Prague

 
1952, the 550th anniversary of Huss' installation as pastor, 3.00 koruna value, Scott 535
1958, the 80th anniversary of the birth of Zdenek Nejedly, restorer of the chapel, Scott 845

The Bethlehem Chapel in Prague was founded in 1391 for sermons in the Czech language. Jan Huss preached there from 1402 to 1412, and it became symbolic of the Hussite movement in Bohemia. It reverted to Catholicism and was given to the Society of Jesus in 1622. The chapel was demolished in 1786, but rebuilt again after 64 years. More

The Church of Our Lady before Tyn, Prague

 
CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1950, Scott 408
FRANCE, 2008 from a souvenir sheet honoring Prague, Scott 3535

The Church of Our Lady before Tyn, an imposing gothic church with a baroque interior, dominates one side of the Old Town Square in Prague where St. Nicholas Church is also located. Around 1385, this one time hospital church was converted into the main cathedral of the Old Town. Between the beginning of 15th century and 1620 this was a stronghold of the Hussites. Its church was taken over by the Jesuits in 1623, who symbolically made the church Catholic and their own by recasting its bell and replacing the Hussite chalice between the towers with a ten-foot figure of Mary. The church contains the grave of the famous Danish astronomer Tycho de Brahe. Tyn means a foundational town protected by a fence or a fortified area where merchants could sell their wares safely, and such an area was once part of old town, though nothing now remains of it.

The College of St. Clement, Prague

1967, Prague the Mother of Cities, showing St. Clement College (right) as well as St. Nicholas (left), Scott 1446

 
1955, Scott C44
1958, Scott 855

The first three items show Charles Bridge crossing the Danube in the center of the picture. The dome and clock tower of St. Nicholas Church, soon to be mentioned, can be recognized to the west (left) of the bridge, although it is not present in the 1628 depiction (above right) which antedates its construction. Immediately to the east (right) of the bridge on the Old Town side of the Vltava (in German, the Moldau) may be seen the towers that belong to the Clementinum or College of St. Clement, founded by St. Peter Canisius in 1556. It is the largest complex of historical buildings in the city. Six years later the college received authority to confer degrees in theology and philosophy and became Ferdinand University, in honor of its protector, the emperor. The Caroline or Charles University was joined to this Jesuit university beginning in 1622. After the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, the Clementinum became Prague University and the home of the Czech National Library.

1988, Charles University, Scott 2707 which also appears on a souvenir sheet, Scott 2708a

 
1998, Souvenir sheet to commemorate Prague's 650th anniversary, the first stamp with the seal of Charles University, Scott 3040

The Holy Mountain near Pribram

2004, Scott 3243

Svatá Hora (Holy Mountain) overlooks Príbram about 35 miles southwest of Prague. The first chapel of Our Lady may have been built here in 1260, a somewhat larger sanctuary had been built by the 16th century. Originally watched over by recluses, Svatá Hora was entrusted to the Jesuits in 1647 who maintained it for the next 126 years until their Suppression. They built the present sanctuary in 1673 consecrated in honor of the Assumption of Our Lady. The Holy Mountain is among the most famous places of pilgrimage in the Czech Republic.

The Sanctuary of the Assumption, Velehrad

1928, Scott 147

2003, postal card #A133 featuring the Velehrad Sanctuary

The Sanctuary of the Assumption at Velehrad, founded by the Cistercians in 1205, was entrusted to the Jesuits in 1890 as a novitiate. An adjoining building, until 1950, housed the Pontifical Institute of Saints Cyril and Methodius to prepare missionaries for the Slavic world. On April 13, 1950 the Jesuits and other religious communities not yet expelled were evicted, collected into former monasteries, and subjected to forced labor. The Sanctuary was returned to the Jesuits in 1990.

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