Josef Beran (29 December 1888 – 17 May 1969) was a Czech Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Prague from 1946 until his death.

[1][2][3] Adam Beran was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp during World War II after the Nazis had targeted him for "subversive and dangerous" behavior where he almost died in 1943 due to disease.

His release in 1963 came with the condition that he could not perform his episcopal duties and he was later exiled to Rome in 1965 as part of a coordinated deal between the church and the national government.

[4] Beran commenced his ecclesial studies in Plzeň from 1899 to 1907 (graduating with distinction in June 1907) and later at the Pontifical Urbaniana in Rome from 1907 until 1911.

From 1912 until 1917 he did work in a worker's district parish and was later named as both a chaplain for the Sisters of Notre Dame in Prague and then as the director for the Saint Anne Institute from 1917 until 1929.

[1] Beran was made the spiritual director for seminarians in Prague from 1932 until 1942 and also served as a professor at Charles College in 1932.

The Gestapo arrested Beran on 6 June 1942 during World War II (on the basis of being "subversive and dangerous") and he was later imprisoned without trial in Pankrác at Theresienstadt (alongside future cardinal Štěpán Trochta) and also the Dachau concentration camp.

[3] Upon his immediate return to Prague the President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš decorated him with the Iron Cross and the medal of Hero of the Resistance - the two highest honors the nation had.

Beran received his episcopal consecration on the following 8 December from Archbishop Saverio Ritter with Bishops Mořic (Maurice) Pícha and Anton Eltschkner serving as the co-consecrators.

[7] He declared: "The Catholic Church should enjoy the absolute freedom to which it has a right, both God-given and guaranteed by the existing Constitution".

During the council's discussion on its document Dignitatis humanae on 20 September 1965 he suggested that expiation for past attacks on religious freedom was a possible cause of the Church's modern suffering.

He was buried in the grotto of Saint Peter's Basilica in the chapel of the Bruised Madonna after Paul VI celebrated his funeral.

[citation needed] Beran's last will expressed his desire to be buried in Prague but this never materialized after his death because the Czechoslovak communist government forbade his remains to be brought in.

A permanent plaque was put in place of his old tomb to commemorate Beran and the small bag of earth buried with him was also sent back to his homeland.

[citation needed] Cardinal Miloslav Vlk blessed the foundation stone of a memorial to Beran unveiled on 13 May 2009 in Prague.

Cardinal Miloslav Vlk presided over the launch of the process with the apostolic nuncio Giovanni Coppa present.