THE ART OF RAY PROHASKA

Gratia “Ray” Prohaska was born in 1901 in Muo, a tiny fishing village on the Bay of Kotorska, in the town of Kotor, on the Dalmatian Coast in what would become Yugoslavia.

- Daniel Zimmer

Though he had few memories of his childhood, Ray told one story that was important in the shaping of his life. Muo, little more than a neighborhood on the road from Kotor to the next town of any size, had it’s own Patron Saint. On a small plateau halfway up the mountain range that rises directly behind the houses along the shore, there is a small, one-room chapel dedicated to their Saint, Saint Gratia, or Sveti Gratia, (Grace, in Serbo-Croatian.) Like many children from his village, Ray had been named for Sveti Gratia. (The female form would be Graciella.) The church held a ceremony one day that included his mother and Godmother, many older people from the village, several priests, and the area Bishop. Someone was ringing the chapel bell, and apparently they pulled too hard on the rope and the bell dislodged from the tower and fell, narrowly missing both the Bishop and Ray, who was holding up the Prelate’s trailing gown. The event was proclaimed a miracle, and from that point on his mother always told him he was in a state of grace. He was her only surviving son, after perhaps as many as ten miscarriages. He had two younger sisters, the youngest of which was born in the U.S. Ray said that he always felt blessed. Blessed, charmed, and lucky.