In recent times, St Anne’s church has been marked by the presence of Fr Atanazij Kocjančič (1911–1996). He was born in a peasant family at Hrastovlje in the parish of Kubed. His father was a tertiary himself and when his son was thirteen, he entrusted him to the Franciscans of the Venetian province in the monastery of St. Anne. After the years of schooling, novitiate and studies (also a two-year medicine course for missionaries), he was ordained a priest in the monastery S. Francesco della Vigna in Venice on 4 July 1937. The fascists wanted to prevent his first mass in his native village and so he could only celebrate it on 15 August 1937 in a small chapel nearby. During the Second World War, he was first a medical military chaplain and then a chaplain to prisoners of war and civilian internees in different places in Italy. In 1947 he was, though innocent, sentenced to four years of hard labour by Yugoslavian communist authorities. In 1974 he finally moved to his beloved St. Anne’s church in Koper and stayed here until his death. He is buried in the tomb at the church entrance. He was a simple, modest and humble son of St. Francis. Following the example of his friend and confessor St. Leopold Mandić, he tirelessly received the faithful and administered the sacrament of reconciliation. The celebration of the Holy Mass was for him the high point of the day. Nobody could ever hear him say any unkind word against anybody, not even against those who had unjustly sentenced him to imprisonment. He loved solitude, but enjoyed every visit. He loved poverty and was happy in his small and extremely simple room. He found happiness in serving and helping others. He never sought standing and praise. And he considered the illness he suffered during the last years of his life as the last grade in the school of the Cross.
