Bishop Kočiš was born as a youngest child among 8 children in the Greek-Catholic family of Juraj Kočiš in Pozdišovce, Czechoslovakia (today eastern Slovakia), but he grew up in Trebišov. After his graduation of school education, he completed his study as the teacher in the Pedagogical College in Michalovce (1942–1946) and worked in this profession a one year in Malá Tŕňa.[1]
In 1947 he joined the Theological Seminary in Prešov, where he studied until prohibition of the Greek-Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia in 1950 and the beginning of religion persecution. Kočiš was clandestinely ordained as a priest on 1 January 1951,[2] a short time before his was forced to make a compulsory service in the military camps for forced labour (1951–1953).[1]
After ordination he served as a clandestine priest, but officially worked as a baker, excavator driver, worker, until his arrest and imprisonment in 1958 by the Communist Czechoslovak State Security for four years. Then he was released, but with prohibition to live in Slovakia and remained in the Czech Republic. In this time, on 3 December 1967, he was clandestine consecrated to the Episcopate by Felix Maria Davídek (but this consecration, among others, made by this bishop, wasn't recognised by the Holy See).[3]
