Jan Sonnevend

Holy New Martyr Jan Sonnevend was born on 25 December 1880 in Topolany near Vyškov in Moravia, into a peasant family. He graduated from the commercial academy in Brno and worked as an insurance clerk. In 1907 he married Marie Lorková, and in 1908 their daughter Ludmila was born.

In 1924 he took part in founding the Orthodox community of Brno, helped to form a choir there and gave generous financial support to the building of the church of Saint Wenceslas. After retiring in 1938 he moved to Prague, where he chaired the council of elders of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

After the German occupation he joined the resistance. When the paratroopers of the Anthropoid group, who carried out the attack on Reinhard Heydrich on 27 May 1942, were fleeing their pursuers, he offered them shelter in the crypt of the cathedral, with the knowledge of the chaplain Vladimír Petřek, the dean Václav Čikl and the sacristans Václav Ornest and Karel Louda. Bishop Gorazd learned of it only on 11 June and ordered them moved to another safe place. After a paratrooper's betrayal the hiding place was discovered on 18 June 1942.

Jan Sonnevend was arrested, cruelly interrogated and sentenced to death on 3 September 1942 by a court martial, in the trial of the leaders of the Orthodox Church. He was shot the next day at the Kobylisy firing range. His wife Marie, his daughter Ludmila and her husband were killed on 24 October 1942 at the Mauthausen camp.

The Synod of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia decided on 10 October 2019 to enter them among the saints, and the solemn glorification took place on 8 February 2020 at the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague, together with the other new martyrs of those years. They are remembered on 5 September.