Štěpán Trochta was born in Francova Lhota, in East Moravia, on 26 March 1905, the first born of three children of František and Anna Trochta, two lowly peasants with a simple and straightforward faith. At the age of 8, he lost his father and shortly afterwards felt the priestly vocation arise within him, so much so that he entered the minor seminary of his diocese. Her mother, however, who worked alone to provide for her children, fell ill with tuberculosis and to care for her and her younger siblings Štěpán left the seminary. During that time he came across an article on the life and works of Don Bosco, trusted entirely in Mary Help of Christians and, once his mother recovered, he chose to become a Salesian.
In autumn 1923, just 18 years of age, he made a journey on his own to Turin. There he completed his philosophical studies, followed by his theological studies, carried out in Rome, and in 1932, he was ordained a priest. He immediately returned home and became one of the founders of Salesian work there: teaching philosophy, pedagogy and religion in Frystak; founding a social work in the industrial city of Ostrava; opening a "youth house" in Prague. In addition, he was assigned to provide spiritual assistance to Catholic scouts.
A sought-after speaker, an expert on youth issues and social issues, he became a prominent personality in the Catholic life of his country. So at the outbreak of World War II his name ended up on the list of the 100 most influential people in Prague to be eliminated to prevent possible opposition. He was deported to the Terezin concentration camp, then to Dachau, and finally to Mauthausen. In the Nazi registers his name was marked with the abbreviation "R U", which means "unwanted return", and was thus assigned to the heaviest jobs, assigned to into groups destined to be eliminated. In Mauthausen, seeing that he was exhausted, a Nazi shot him point-blank "to free him from a long agony". But Fr Trochta did not die. He regained consciousness while he was already on a wagon of corpses sent to the crematorium. He managed to let himself slip off and ended up being rescued by a camp doctor.
At the end of the war, his homeland was in ruins and was also invaded by the Red Army. On 29 September 1947, Pius XII appointed him Bishop of Litoměřice, the most devastated diocese in Bohemia. The seminary was destroyed, 70 percent of the parishes were without priests. Bishop Trochta set to work, following the motto chosen at his episcopal consecration: Actio, Sacrificium, Caritas (Action, Sacrifice, Love).
However, the Czechoslovakian Communist regime effectively barred him from episcopal activity and for three years he was held under house arrest at his headquarters, until, in 1953, he was arrested on charges of espionage and "anti-state activity" and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
In 1960 he was pardoned, but forced to find a manual job: he worked as a bricklayer and maintenance worker for lifts and toilets. Even in this state, he did not forget his mission as a bishop and did everything he could for his priests and the diocese.
On 2 August 1968, after 18 years of absence, he was able to resume the government of his diocese and on 1 September 1968 – in a Czechoslovakia that had just seen the Prague Spring repressed in blood – he ascended the pulpit in his cathedral to say, "Many of you I am seeing for the first time, although I have been your Bishop for 21 years. I've had terrible years. I saw the worst of human wickedness. But Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, today and forever. ”
In 1969, Pope Paul VI appointed him Cardinal, but kept his appointment hidden, "in pectore". Only on 5 March 1973 could he publish his elevation to the red hat, which Bishop Trochta finally received on the following 12 April. He lived as a cardinal for less than a year; then, consumed by the many crosses carried which he offered up with patience and love, he died on 6 April 1974.
