Significant people from the Diocese of Brno
Řehoř Mendel (Gregor Mendel, 1822-1884), founder of modern genetics and abbot of the Augustinian monastery in Staré Brno. His book Experiments with Vegetable Hybrids was translated into all European and many world languages.
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), one of the most original composers of the Czech musical modernism, composer of "Moravian" music, folklorist, founder and director of the organ school in Brno (since 1881).
Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel (1677-1723), leading representative of the Gothic-Baroque architecture in our country. His shrine of St. John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora in the Vysočina Region was enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994.
St. Klement Maria Hofbauer (1751-1820), religious priest of the congregation of Redemptorists, born in Tasovice near Znojmo, baker by his original profession. As a missionary he served in Warsaw and Vienna. In 1888 he was beatified and in 1909 canonized, since 1914 he is the patron saint of Vienna.
Blessed Restituta Helena Kafková (1894-1943), religious sister of the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. Having remained faithful and having supported free Austria during the World War II, she was beheaded in Vienna in 1943. In the same city she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
St. John Sarkander (1576-1620), priest and martyr. He was ordained deacon in 1609 at the Jesuit church of the Assumption in Brno and in the same year he received also the priestly ordination at the Ss. Peter and Paul church in Brno – Petrov (today's cathedral). Being venerated as a patron saint of confessors, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II in Olomouc in 1995.
St. Zdislava of Lemberk (ca. 1220-1252), born in Křižanov, was a mother of four children and a devoted helper of the needy. Canonized in Olomouc in 1995 by John Paul II, she is venerated as patron saint of families.
St. John Capistran (1386-1456), Italian monk of the Franciscan order, one of the most renowned preachers of his days, called the "Apostle of Europe." In 1451 Capistran preached in Brno; a stone pulpit standing in the northern part of the cathedral was called "kapistránka" in his honour.
Vojtěcha Antonie Hasmandová (1914-1988), superior of the Congregation of Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in Znojmo. She remained faithful to religious rules and served devotedly to the Church despite persecution of the Communist regime. Her beatification procedure is now under way in the Vatican.
Martin Středa (1587-1649), Jesuit priest and provincial superior. His fervent prayers and deep faith in good end supported defenders of Brno during the Thirty-Years' War. On the Assumption of Our Lady, 15th August 1645, large Swedish army was finally defeated. This event is commemorated every year on the "Day of Brno."
Jan Bula (1920-1952), priest and martyr. One of the victims during the "Babice Trial" in the 1950's – an attempt of the Communist regime to intimidate people in a rural region by condemning some of them to death and many others to many years of imprisonment. Bishop Vojtěch Cikrle of Brno launched Bula's beatification procedure in 2004.
Tomáš Týn (1950-1990), Dominican priest born in Brno. Most of his life he spent in Bologna, Italy. During his priestly ordination in Western Germany in 1975 he offered his life as a sacrifice for the liberation of the persecuted Church in Czechoslovakia. He died a month after the fall of the Communist regime, in January 1990. His beatification procedure was launched in February 2006 in Bologna.
František Sušil (1804-1868), priest, poet, translator, and one of the most significant collectors of Moravian folk songs, author of many songbooks. He gathered the incredible number of 2,361 songs of secular as well as religious character, sorted them according to their themes and genres, and wrote down in their original dialects.
Jan Zahradníček (1905-1960), poet, translator and publicist, the most significant Czech religious poet of the 20th century. Together with many other writers, inconvenient for the regime, he was condemned in 1952 to a 13-year-long imprisonment for alleged treason. A memorial to commemorate his remarkable work as well as painful fate stands in a park near the Brno cathedral.
Jiří Josef Camel (1661-1706), Jesuit priest born in Brno and significant botanist. His contribution to the universal pharmacy by discovering several new medicaments is never to be forgotten.