August 21, 1968 will be remembered as a day of infamy by the Czechs and Slovaks. Fifty-five years ago this week, Warsaw Pact forces led by the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovaka to bring a brutal end to reforms by the country's Communist government during the "Prague Spring" aimed at creating "socialism with a human face." Czech Graphic Artist Jaroslav Vodrazka captured the traumatized mood in his homeland in a small-format etching of a martyred saint, recalling the Crucifixion and the slaying of St. Sebastian, with a slip of paper nailed to the tree reading 21.VIII.1968. Czechoslovakia eventually broke away from Moscow in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the Czechs and Slovaks went their separate ways to become part of an expanded Europe. Considered one of the most irreligious countries in the world, Czechia is surprisingly rich in contemporary sacred art. Over the next few weeks of this anniversary summer, I will be offering a sampling of works from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection by Czech artists whose careers bridge a time span from the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the present day. (John Kohan)