The eighth episode of the Slavic Fly Epopeia is “Jan Hus ed Bethlehem Chapel in Prague‘.
The Czech Republic, John Hus, seems to associate mainly with his saying: “Veritas omnia vincit (Truth will win everything)’. It is more crucial to me that his thought that communion should be in the form of bread and wine for all, not just a wafer itself. I say if wine was served in churches, people would go to churches on Sundays.
At the minute about 20% of people go to church on Sundays in Poland, and half of them join communion. If there was wine, the churches would be full!
Once, in Kazimierz nad Vistula, we found a store supplying churches. It was a place where you could buy Mass wine. We bought it out of curiosity and found it very tasty.
Jan Hus was burned at the stake by the Germans who were allowed by the Pope. The Czechs made an uprising, for many years there were wars called Hussic. In the Czech Republic I visited respective castles where the brave Hussites-Czechs were attacked by multinational Catholic troops. The communicative in these castles was eminently prohustic.
But I think that the Hussic wars were not about serving wine during communion, it was about freedom. Everyone knows the Crusaders were making crusades in the vicinity of Jerusalem, but not everyone knows there were 5 crusades against the Hussites. The Hussites fought the slogan on their lips: “Oh, sancta simplicitas – Oh, the feast of naivety‘. It is said that John Hus said these words at the stake to the woman's foundation of the Christ.
Michał Leszczyński
