A speck of hope
The Komenský family took its name from the village Komni near Uherský Brod. Martin Komenský was working for his brother, a miller, when his son Jan was born on 28 March 1592. The place of birth is unknown - Uherský Brod or Nivnice are mentioned as probable places. Soon the whole family moved to Uherský Brod, where they belonged to wealthy townsmen and important members of the Unity of Brethren. It was with the help of the Unity of Brethren that Jan got into the school in Přerov. He graduated from university in Herborn, Heidelberg. Already as a student he began to write The Treasure of the Czech Language and prepared a work for youth, The Theatre of All Things.
After his return to Bohemia, he became a priest and a teacher at the school in Přerov, and later also the rector of the school in Fulnek. After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and the Old Town Execution in June of the following year, Komenský learned of the warrant issued for his arrest. He obeyed the warning of Charles the Elder of Žerotín and hid near Šternberk on the Žerotín estate, but then had to flee Moravia to Brandýs nad Orlicí.
In 1628, after the proclamation of the Restoration of the Land, he finally went into exile - first to Leszno in Poland, from there he travelled to England, France, Sweden, Hungary and back to Leszno. The Peace of Westphalia, which was negotiated in 1648, meant for the Habsburgs a long domination of the Bohemian lands and for Comenius a lifetime of exile. It was at this time that his Kšaft of the dying mother of the Unity of the Brethren was founded. Swedish and Polish troops swept through Leszno and the town burned for three days. Here he lost his manuscripts for the Treasure of the Czech Language. He spent his old age in Amsterdam, Holland, where half of Comenius' entire work was published.
In Holland, he used to go to the seashore to reminisce about his distant homeland before advanced age and illness confined him to a chair. The gesture of despair of his friend, the grief of his wife and others suggest that the painting depicts the last days of his life. The dream of returning home is extinguished like the flame of a lantern on a sandy overhang. He knows he will never see the freedom of his homeland again.
The silhouette of Naarden, where Komenský is buried, looms in the distance. He died on 15 November 1670.
Vita App/gnews.cz-Jana Černá_07
English 
Czech