"I went after different jobs, like a catafalque arranger." - "You mean in a funeral parlor?" - "Sure." - "Where was that done?" - "I did it in Strašnice." - "In Strašnice at the crematorium?" - "Right. I even started a band there, and we were about to shoot a video that we wanted to do right there somewhere. It was amazing, because the crematorium boss at the time, Mareček, I think, played the saxophone; the master of cermony Pepa Šlechtický was a former soloist with the Cardinals, Mirek Gertner was still a functioning part of the first rap ensemble in our country at that time, which were - with Lesík Hajdovský - I forget their name. They did Jižák, město snů - and he played the cello, and the DJ from the little hall played the drums."
"That was in Bartolomějská I think, or in Konviktská, that's more like it. They were asking me in this standard way, but then one of them said, 'You live on the third floor, don't you, and you have a small child. Aren't you afraid he'll fall out?' I said, 'No, there are window sills, he won't get in there.' - 'I wouldn't be so sure if I were you.' That was just a hidden threat, and that gave me a big chill."
"It was when I hid my samizdat books with him [priest Miloš Josef Pulec]. I saw cops in front of the rotunda - no, it was in front of Mary Magdalene - checking people walking out. I said, 'Doctor, I have a bag of samizdat, and they're going to take it away from me.' - 'Okay, keep it here.' I put it in a chapel pew. Four weeks later, the cops pulled it on me during an interrogation. It still hadn't dawned on me yet."
Karel Kryštof Navrátil was born in Hradec Králové on 9 June 1952 to Ludmila Navrátilová and Karel Navrátil. The family lived in Česká Lípa for the next six years and then they moved to Prague. In 1967, together with his classmates, he founded the Independent Democracy Club. During the Prague Spring, he also joined an amateur group called Divadlo Onyx. After the abdication of Antonín Novotný, he also demonstrated with other students for Čestmír Císař‘s presidential candidacy. In January 1969, he took part in the funeral procession for Jan Palach. Through Jaroslav Jeroným Neduha who he met during the Prague Spring, he came into contact with the Old Catholic Church. He then met many people from the dissent and underground circles. During normalisation, he played music, disseminated samizdat literature and contributed to publishing the magazine Vokno. He was interrogated several times by the State Security Service (StB) and faced threats. He worked as a manager in a scrap yard, a catafalque arranger in a crematorium and a window cleaner. He organised various cultural events. He signed the Several Sentences petition in 1989 and in November he enthusiastically took part in anti-regime protests. After the Velvet Revolution he worked with various radio stations. In 2002 he won the Prix Bohemia Radio award. In 2003, he founded the Muse for Children association, which organises trips with artists of various fields to visit children in orphanages. He was recognised by the Ministry of Defence as a participant of the Third Resistance. He lived in Prague in 2025.
