On Wednesday, 26 March 2025, the closing session of the diocesan process for the beatification of the Servant of God Janez (Ivan) Strašek CM (1906-1947), a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, born in the parish of Podčetrtek in Slovenia, was held at Kaptol in Zagreb.

Janez Strašek preached the Gospel relentlessly and was not afraid of threats. He was close to every person in difficulty. He was a priest of Christ for a very short time in his native Slovenia. After his ordination in 1933, in 1935 he was sent by his superiors to Belgrade (Serbia) as chaplain and catechist, and then to Kosovska Mitrovica (Kosovo), where he was chaplain, catechist and finally parish priest.

On 24 July 1941 he was again sent to Belgrade. After 1942, he worked in Kragujevac, and the following year in Novi Kneževac (Banat). On 8 September 1946, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he arrived in the parish of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Svetice, near Karlovac and the local Pauline monastery. From 14.12.1946, he also administered the parish of Ozelj, after the murder of the parish priest of Ozelj, Rev. Matija Kranjčić.

On Palm Sunday, 30 March 1947, Janez celebrated Holy Mass in Ozelj in the morning and then walked along the forest path towards Svetice. He was always punctual, but that day he did not arrive. The faithful were surprised that he had not yet arrived and began to pray the rosary. They went looking for him, but did not meet him on the way. His murderers, two brothers, met him in the woods, shot him with a shotgun and finally killed him with stakes. He probably suffered for a long time before taking his last breath. The brothers dragged him off the path and covered him with leaves. The next day, a parishioner found him.

Janez Strašek’s sermons, in which he said that children should be baptised in Church and that spouses should marry in Church, annoyed the opponents of the faith and the Church. They thought he was ‘corrupting the youth’ and should be killed. The time when he was active was a time of intimidation and imprisonment of priests. Some who heard the gunshots and shouts in the woods did not dare help him out of fear.

The closing session of the Diocesan Trial was opened by Rev. Tomislav Subotičanec, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, with Rev. Marko Kovač, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, also present. The Vice-postulator, Fr. Dario Grbac, C.M., briefly presented the figure and work of the Servant of God, after which the members of the Tribunal and representatives of the Vincentian Family (priests, religious and laity) present recited a prayer for the beatification of Janez Strašek.

After the oaths of the Diocesan Delegate, the Promoter of Justice, the Notary, the Postulator General and the Vice-Postulator, the documents gathered in this procedure were sealed and delivered to me to be taken to Rome, to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

May the Lord bless the continuation of the process of beatification of the Servant of God Janez Strašek.

Prayer for the beatification of Janez Strašek, C.M:

Lord God! You endowed the Servant of God Janez Strašek with generosity, who was always ready to help anyone, and constantly proclaimed your Word without fearing anyone. Thou hast crowned his life and works with heroic faith unto death. We ask you to venerate him soon in the Church and to commend us even more in our needs.

Through his intercession, grant us the grace for which we ask….

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen

P. Serhiy Pavlish, C.M.

Postulator General