František Tomášek

Who was František Tomášek?

František Tomášek was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Bohemia, the 34th Archbishop of Prague, and a Roman Catholic theologian. His "cautious but resolute opposition to the Czechoslovak communist regime helped to bring about its peaceful demise in the 1989 Velvet Revolution".

Born in 1899 in what was then part of the Austrian Empire, Tomášek was one of the six children of a schoolteacher who died when he was still a boy. After completing his schooling and military service, he studied at Saints Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology of Olomouc and was ordained on 7 May 1922. He taught religion in schools. Later he also taught at the Cyril and Methodius theological faculty, where he obtained a doctorate in 1938. Soon after, the Nazi occupation led to the closure of the Czech universities and Tomášek returned to schoolteaching. After the war, Tomasek again taught in the faculty and also obtained a second doctorate.