He was born in Vajnory in Slovakia on 4 January 1915 and died there on 8 January 1969, a martyr for vocations. The son of peasant farmers who were also sacristans, he grew up in a large family. He suffered various illnesses from early childhood. After a sudden recovery at the age of 10, he promised Mary to "be her son forever" and to become a Salesian priest.
He became a novice in 1931, made his perpetual profession in 1938 and was ordained priest in 1940. He remained steadfast against the communist regime. In 1946 he was dismissed from the school where he taught because he defended the crucifix. He managed to escape the "Night of the Barbarians" and the deportation of religious (13-14 April 1950). He then looked for ways to help the clerics to reach the goal of priesthood. He organized expeditions to cross the Iron Curtain and send candidates to Turin, but on the third attempt (April 1951) he was caught.
Fr Zeman had to face about 13 years of wrongful imprisonment and torture, experiencing hardship in prison and forced labour camps. He was forced to endure long periods of isolation and to work with radioactive uranium without any protection. He was branded as a "man marked for elimination". In 1964 he was given five years on parole but was constantly spied on and persecuted. He was forbidden to publicly exercise the priestly ministry. He died on 8 January 1969, after a triple heart attack.
Already at the time of his death he was regarded as a martyr. In 1991 a review of his case found him to be innocent.
The testimony of Fr Zeman is the embodiment of the vocational call of Jesus and of a pastoral predilection for the young, especially for young Salesians, which became for him a true passion. He once said, "even if I lost my life, I would not consider it wasted, knowing that at least one of those I had helped had become a priest in my place."
