BERAN JOSEF: (1888-1969) Czech Catholic Archbishop of Prague 1946-69. Beran was elevated to ...

BERAN JOSEF: (1888-1969) Czech Catholic Archbishop of Prague 1946-69. Beran was elevated to Cardinal in 1965. A good and unusual signed and inscribed program, `+Giuseppe Beran´, three pages, 4to, Assisi, August 1965, in Italian. To the inside of the bifolium program Beran sends a six lines blessing, in red ink, stating in part `Vi benedico di cuore... Sincerissime gratulazione!..´ further referring to the spiritual journey, to the concerts and lectures. The program shows to the front page the printed text of the event, "XXIII Christian Studies course - Concerts and Lectures - Assisi - Teatro della Cittadella Cristiana". To the inside pages the program shows the concerts and lectures scheduled from 27th to 29th September. With binding holes. VG

In June 1942 Beran announced he would celebrate a Mass for the Czechoslovak prisoners of war detained in direct defiance of Nazi directives. The Gestapo arrested Beran the 6th June 1942 on the basis of being "subversive and dangerous" and was imprisoned without trial in Pankrac and later in the Dachau concentration camp where he remained from September 1942 until April 1945 after the Allied forces liberated the camp. Upon his immediate return to Prague the President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Benes decorated him with the Iron Cross and the medal of Hero of the Resistance - the two highest honors the nation had. But the introduction of the communist regime saw him imprisoned and placed under house arrest. His release in 1963 came with the condition that he could not perform his episcopal duties, being later exiled to Rome in 1965. His cause for canonization opened in 1998 and was granted the rare honour of being buried in Saint Peter´s Basilica.