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The Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia issued an edict of [[September 27]], 1942, closing all Czech Orthodox Churches and confiscating their property. The Orthodox priests were taken away to forced labor in Germany, thus effectively destroying the Czech Orthodox Church.
With the end of the war in 1945 the devastated cathedral was returned to the revived Orthodox Church. The first liturgy was held in the courtyard in front of the church building on [[May 13]], 1945. On third anniversary of the "Heydrich Terror," [[June 17]], the first memorial service for the victim’s victims of the terror was held in the over flowing cathedral. The cathedral was re-consecrated on [[July 5]], 1947 as it had been desecrated in the Gestapo attack of 1942. In 1946, the apartment of the martyred sacristan, Vaclav Ornest, was converted into a chapel as a memorial to Bp. Gorazd and was consecrated on [[November 12]], 1947. A bronze memorial plaque, unveiled on [[October 28]], 1947, was placed on the exterior of the cathedral emblazoned with relief portraits of the parachutists who died in the cathedral as well as Bp. Gorazd, who was canonized on [[September 4]], 1987.
Since then, the cathedral has been restored further, including new iconography and painting. Through the years from World War II, memorial services have been held annually in remembrance of the victims of "Heydrich’s Terror" on [[June 18]]. This has culminated in the establishment of the Orthodox Cathedral of Ss. Cyril and Methodius as ''A National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror - A Place of Reconciliation''. This took place on the 60th anniversary, [[September 28]], 1995, of its original consecration as the first Czech Orthodox cathedral.
