The Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows

by the House of the Society of Jesus

 

There used to be an old district hospital in that place. In 1942, Jesuits began to rebuild it into a chapel and several flats. Thus it served until 1997.

Then at the place, a new church consecrated on October 11, 1997 and the House for Spiritual Exercises were built. Again, the church is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. By tradition, the building is still called a chapel, even if it has the size and attributes of a church.

 

 

From the history of the chapel

The fact that the chapel is situated at its place, besides God's help stands also an example of persistence and devotion of many people.

In the years 1933 – 1934, Ľudovít Winter, the then director and lessee of the spa worked out a plan, according to which a secondary grammar school (Gymnázium), a church and a hall of residence should have been built in „Floreát" urban district of Piešťany. He wanted to entrust them to a religious order. Unfortunately, the plan was not implemented due to the lack of experts available. However, together with the vice-provincial of Slovak Jesuit monastic order, P. Rudolf Mikuš, they agreed on coming back to the plans later.

The expanding town of Piešťany lacked especially a new church, because the old one was no more big enough and moreover, it was situated far from the new urban districts. Therefore Mr. Winter continued with organizational preparations.

On 27th February 1939 Municipal Council of Piešťany met the requirement of Catholic Education Office regarding the construction of Jesuit monastery. The council decided to donate estate for this purpose, with the area of 6,000 square metres on so-called „Váhový rad" (the southeastern outskirts of the town). However, the estate was not situated conveniently and the town centre would still have been without a church. A small „spa chapel" nearby the glass bridge was not spacious enough to substitute the role of a church for the inhabitants of the town centre.

Nevertheless, the provincial P. Rudolf Mikuš determined about the permanent stay of Jesuit father, Ľudovít Eiselle in the town, after having made an agreement with the dean, Mr. Šindelár, in order to prepare founding of the House of the Society of Jesus and building of the church.

On September 25, 1939 , the apostolic administrator, ThDr. Pavol Jantausch made out a letter of credence, in which he approved establishing the monastic house. However, the problems regarding the estate for the church still lasted. The compound of Military Spa Institute which was not used by soldiers very much seemed to be a suitable place for the monastery. Several negotiations of town, state and church representatives were under way.

As requested by the Ministry of Defence, P. Eiselle had the design of the church produced by architects B. Szoenyi and Prof. Wimmer. Some promises were made, but at last, on March 11, 1941 it emerged that the soldiers were only delaying and creating obstructions. Thus their action put Jesuits to considerable expenses. The intention regarding the Military Spa Institute failed to be implemented.

Meanwhile, the plan could no longer be supported by Winter brothers because they were in pre-trial custody in Bratislava, owing to their Jewish origin, although in that time they had already been christened for more than 30 years and in the Slovak state they had been granted a presidential exception to anti-Semitic rules. Although they were released from custody on 18th March 1941, the younger brother fell ill and the other one was hiding because of fear of reprisals. All the same, he was interned in a detention camp in Sereď after all and deported to Terezín concentration camp in Bohemia. The elder brother lived to see the end of the war. For some time he worked as an employee of the firm Floreat which he had set up himself. After installing Marxist regime he fell into disgrace of Communists and in 1949 he was dismissed.

Following longer negotiations with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance, the old district hospital turned out to be a suitable building site. The Presidium head of the Ministry of the Interior, Dr. Izidor Koso admitted that the rather small hospital was obsolete and the state only paid for it and that its sale, even though at lower price, would be advantageous for the state.

On 3rd January 1942 the representatives of the Ministry of the Interior handed the premises of the district hospital over to the Jesuit Order's care and use. The municipality of Piešťany should have been the guarantor of payment.

P. Eiselle so spolupracovníkmi urobili z dvoch väčších miestností kaplnku s kapacitou asi 500 ľudí a v obytnej časti upravili tri izby. Na plánovanie a vykonanie stavebných prác sa podujal pán staviteľ Brokeš, stolárske práce robil pán Vavro a maliarske pán Guriš.

P. Eiselle with his fellow-workers turned two bigger rooms into a chapel with the capacity of approximately 500 people and in the living section they rearranged three rooms. Mr. Brokeš, a constructor undertook to plan and perform building work while the joinery was done by Mr. Vavro and the painting by Mr. Guriš.

The original altar was donated to Jesuit Fathers by Ursuline nuns from Trnava. It was brought to Piešťany on 19th January 1942. At the beginning of March, a small but resonant bell was hung up at the courtyard near the chapel.

The chapel was soon filled up with people and as many as three Sunday masses were not sufficient. Therefore in the summer season the masses were celebrated at the courtyard which could hold a lot more people. The organ as well as the organist were protected by a spreading walnut tree, however, many people used to stand directly in the sun.

Yet, difficulties had still no end. Based on preliminary estimates, Jesuits expected to pay from 100,000 to 200,000 crowns for the dilapidated and useless building. On 7th May 1942 they found out that the Ministry of the Interior required 600,000 crowns. However, that was amount of money that neither Jesuits nor the municipality as the guarantor of the payment were able to pay. Hectic negotiations began, with explaining the original conditions of inviting the Jesuits to Piešťany supported with the minutes of April 20, 1935. In the end, the whole case was settled conveniently in March 1943 when the Ministry of the Interior was satisfied with the sum of 150,000 crowns. The amount was finally paid by the municipality as its contribution to the construction of a new church.

When the building was owned by the religious order at last, building operations on extending the chapel could begin. The chapel was given a final shape of the letter L and that way it served until 1997. The house was extended also with garrets which served for accommodating of Jesuits. The district authority in Trenčín made a contribution of 50,000 crowns to the cost of reconstruction. Older altar boys and women from the town would help construction workers. The new chapel could hold up to 900 people as early as November 1943.

Alexander Šindelár, the local dean consecrated the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel on 14th November 1943.

Urgent need of the chapel was evidenced by the fact that it used to be sufficiently filled up with people despite celebrating four masses on religious holidays and two masses on weekdays in it.

The chapel was again in danger towards the close of World War II. Retreating German soldiers were commanded to blow up the building of the old post office in the immediate vicinity. When the inhabitants of Piešťany begged them not to do that, the soldiers explained it to them. If the command wouldn't be obeyed, they would be shot. The soldiers even started to dig a hole for explosives. In the end, however, for unknown reasons they only destroyed telephone exchanges but the building was spared. Only the windows of the chapel were broken following the explosion on the glass bridge situated about one kilometer from there.

In 1946 a Preparation Board for the building of a new church was established. It was raising charitable gifts for the construction of the new church. Marian congregation was founded and during World War II Theological Institute of the Society of Jesus was located here for certain period when it had to move away from „partisan" Banská Bystrica.

Students organized musical evenings and gave theatrical performances, the proceeds of which they donated towards the construction of the church. Building materials for the new church were already being brought to the courtyard.

On 13th April 1950, shortly before midnight, Communists with weapons in their hands terminated working of the religious order by violence. They drove all the monks and they also confiscated finance raised as charitable gifts that should have been used for the construction of the new church.

In 1968, Jesuit Father Michal Petráš came here and the chapel was put into his keeping until 1972. Then within the „normalization", his state consent was revoked by Communists. In 1971, within the bounds of liturgical restoration according to the conclusions of second Council of Vatican, the parish office provided the chapel with new liturgical equipment, its electrification and decorating. Adjacent building of the residence served as a recreational facility for priests and church employees.

Systematic pastoral work was not restored until January 6, 1990 when Ján Revák was the first Jesuit Father to come here. Together with Fathers Jozef Porubčan and Michal Potocký, they started to create new history of Piešťany's community. The House for Spiritual Exercises in Piešťany became well-known throughout Slovakia, in spite of inconvenient conditions in terms of space.

In 1995, the management of the Slovak province of the Society of Jesus decided that eventually, the plan of Jesuit Father Eiselle would be implemented. A new complex was built, including the building of a new church as well as the House for Spiritual Exercises. The church was consecrated on 11th October 1997 by Mons. Dominik Tóth and the House for Spiritual Exercises was consecrated on 26th May 2000 by Mons. Vladimír Filo.

The old Chapel was still serving during the first stage of construction of the new church which is located in its place.

 

 

Present

The new church is again dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. However, according to tradition, it is still called a chapel.

The authors of the building are architects Ing. arch. Ľubomír Mrňa and Ing. arch. Marcel Kajlich. Liturgical equipment was designed by architect Ľudovít Chmelár. The statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, risen from the dead (situated on the left and right side, respectively, above the altar) were made by Doc. Acad. sculptor Milan Lukáč.

The Way of the Cross was painted by academic painter Ladislav Záborský in 1997.

 

 

Eclectic side altar is retained from the old chapel.

 

Effort to build a house for spiritual exercises came from Jesuit traditions of providing them for those people who want to arrange their lives so that they were in accordance with God's will. Thus today, there is a small chapel, kitchen and dining room at their disposal. The people are accommodated in 29 single rooms with their own sanitary facilities.

In average, more than 1,000 believers, including priests, monks and nuns participate in spiritual exercises per year.

The „chapel" used to be the most attended church in Piešťany until a new parish church of Ss. Cyril and Methodius was built, because the old parish church is situated in the „old Piešťany" urban district, rather far from the town centre. The chapel is known for everyday possibility of confessing at each holy mass. Therefore, not only believers from Piešťany but also those from its environs like to use the chance and come to confession there.

 

You can learn more on the Society of Jesus in Piešťany on their website.

 

Literature used:

Ľudovít Chmelár-Hlohovský: Piešťanský dekanát. Magma, 2003, 58-59
Rajmund Onduš, SJ: P. Ľudovít Eiselle, SJ – Svedok a služobník generácií. Dobrá kniha, 2000