Remains of priest Václav Drbola exhumed ahead of beatification

Church representatives, accompanied by legal and forensic experts, exhumed an urn containing the remains of priest Václav Drbola at a cemetery in Starovičky in the Břeclav region on Thursday.

Drbola, who was executed during the communist regime, is set to be beatified. The process began with a ceremony in the Church of St Catherine before the urn was retrieved from the grave. Officials later confirmed the urn contained Drbola’s remains.

Drbola was executed by the communist authorities in August 1951 and later cremated. His ashes were meant to disappear without a trace, but funeral workers secretly preserved the urn. It was handed to his relatives during the Prague Spring and placed in a family grave in the 1980s.