Matava, Stephen P.
Description
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The novel opens in a small town in Slovakia. The time is 1849 when the power of the Roman Chatholic Church was declining. A young
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priest was sent to a broken down abbey to restore the influence of the church. He started the building process when he finds a newborn baby on the church steps.
The priest raises him in the abbey and prepares him for the priesthood, but the boy falls in love with a young woman who becomes pregnant. The young man leaves his training and marries the young lady. They have five sons and and one daughter, raised the shadow of the mother church.
Living under the yoke of the Austrian-Hungary Empire was a life of survival. The family moves to the United States, one by one. Each one that came, scrimped and saved to bring the next one over. World War I erupted and the youngest boy, Stefan, was drafted into the army of the empire before he could take his parents to the new land.. He fought in the war for which he had no sympathy and left his parents in the hands of the hired help. Stefan was wounded and after his recovery, he was captured and spent two years as an American prisoner of war.
Stefan returns home and falls in love with the woman who took care of his parents. His father dies and he takes his mother, his pregnant wife to America to be with the rest of his family. Their firstborn was delivered on a steamer, half way across the Atlantic Ocean. They finally landed in Boston to begin their their new life in the textile mills of Cohoes, New York.
The story tells of the conflicts encountered in the rural area of eastern Europe. The influence of the church and very strong family values were brought to America and are still part of the lives of the people who left the oppressions of their homeland. It tells of the power and force that our forefathers had and the determination to come to America so the future generations could be born free.
About the Author
Stephen Matava was born of immigrant parents, ten years after his parents came from Slovakia. He was raised in a Slovak neighorhood and spent most of his life in the shadow of his parent's native land. He was the fifth child and the first to graduate fom high school. The older children had to leave school to help support the family. He was raised with strict family and religious values and passed these on to his own children, He hold a degree from the University of Hartford and spent most of his life in the insurance business world.
The author is married and has raised three children who have left the nest There are three grandchildren that he sees as often as possible. He learned of his ancestors from the stories that were told around the supper table and from any other material that he could find on the subject. He spent fifteen years years as a claims adjuster for a large insurance company before going into business for himself as an insurance agent. Following the family values of his forefathers has been good to him and he now finds time to write full time. Besides this nove, he ahs written a book of selected poems which will be next to be published.
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