Stan Liska was born in the village of Bohumilice, in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), where his parents had also been born. He was one of six children. His father worked as a farmer and a butcher. Stan was baptized and confirmed at Holy Trinity Church in the Diocese of Ceske Budejovice. In 1949, while still in high school, Stan began an apprenticeship to train as a butcher. He qualified after two years training, but due to centralization of the meat industry under the Communists he was unable to find work locally. Instead he went to work on the State Farm in order to stay close to home.

While driving a tractor on the State Farm, Stan spied a village with a church spire in the distance. He learned that the village was in West Germany and he knew that the border was not strictly patrolled at the time. He took a chance, told no one of his plans and left under cover of darkness in April 1952. He said of his journey, which was undertaken without really knowing the way, “the forest floor was swampy and I was almost up to my knees in water.” At the end of his arduous journey, he found the village and “when I reached the church, I knelt down and thanked God.”

Life was not immediately easy, however. After interrogation by the German police, he was handed over to American Intelligence officers in Passau. He was held in detention for six weeks of questioning. He was eventually cleared by the Americans, and then sent to Nuremburg where he endured life in two separate detention camps, the first “very rough and the second was a more civil place where he said there young men his age and the opportunity for some fellowship.” From Nuremburg he was able to write his parents, who had been interrogated by the Communists about his abrupt departure, but experienced no further retribution.

He worked as a guard of the PX for the American forces stationed in Germany and applied for a visa to travel to Canada, sponsored by an uncle living in Germany. On the voyage across the Atlantic he worked as a cleaner without complaint. He docked in St. John, New Brunswick in March 1953. The trip to Saskatoon took a further four days, but he had cousins waiting for him there. He began work on their farm, and the farms of his other cousins living nearby. He eventually found work in a meat factory in Saskatoon, which was short lived due to language issues. Eventually he worked for a Ukrainian family on their Prudhomme farm. It was here that he discovered the Redemptorists.

He made novitiate (1956 – 1957) in Senneville, Quebec, under the guidance of Fr. Cornelius McElligott as Novice Master, and made his first profession at St. Alphonsus Seminary as a Redemptorist brother on September 15, 1957. First appointed in charge of the laundry room in Holy Redeemer College, Windsor, he moved west to St. Alphonsus in Edmonton in 1959. In 1960 he became stationary engineer of Holy Redeemer College in Edmonton, moving there from Liguori House in 1962. He was in charge of the heating plant and cooked for the community at Edmonton. From 1962 to 1964 he was the cook at Liguori Provincial House.

In 1964, he began studies for the priesthood at Resurrection College in Kitchener, Ontario. He studied theology at Mt. St. Alphonsus in Esopus, NY (1966 – 1968) and at Newman College, Edmonton, from which he obtained his B.A. in Theology in 1970. He was ordained a priest on May 25, 1970 by Archbishop Anthony Jordan, OMI.

Fr. Liska’s first appointment was as Associate Pastor at St. Joseph’s in Grande Prairie in 1970. In 1974 he was named Pastor/Rector of St. Alphonsus in Winnipeg. In 1981 he was appointed Pastor/Rector of St. Gerard’s in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. He was Pastor/Rector of St. Alphonsus in Edmonton from 1984 to 1991.He returned to Grande Prairie as an Associate Pastor in 1991. From 1996 to 1999 Fr. Liska served as Pastor/Rector of St. Mary’s parish in Saskatoon. In 1999, he was appointed Rector of the Redemptorist Community at Grey Nuns/Villa Marguerite in Edmonton.

Fr. Liska attended the General Chapters of 1973, 1979 and 1985 as a Vocalis General of the Prague Province.

Fr. Liska has three siblings who also went on to religious life within the Catholic Church. His brother, Antonin Liska (d. 2003), joined the Redemptorists, and was appointed Bishop of Budweiss in the Czech Republic by St. John Paul II in 1991. His sister, Sr. Marie, was a Provincial of the School Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in the Prague Province. Another sister, Sr. Ludmilla (Klemencie), also joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame. As well, Fr. Stan has a nephew, Pavel Liska, who is a diocesan priest in the diocese of Ceske Budejovice.

Fr. Liska quietly celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination on May 25, 2020 with a private mass at Villa Marguerite where he lived until shortly before his death on June 26, 2025 at Hardisty Care Home in Edmonton.

May he rest in peace.