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Primož Trubar (9 June 1508 – 28 June 1586) was a Slovene protestant reformer, the founder and the first superintendent of the Protestant Church of the Slovene Lands, a consolidator of the Slovene language and the author of the first Slovene printed book.
[edit] His life and work
Trubar was born in the village Raščica (now part of Velike Lašče) in the Duchy of Carniola, then under the Habsburgs. In the years 1520-1521 he attended school in Rijeka, in 1522-1524 he continued his education in Salzburg. From there he went to Trieste under the tutorship of the Roman Catholic bishop Pietro Bonomo, where he got in touch with the Humanist writers, in particular Erasmus of Rotterdam. In 1528 he enrolled at the University of Vienna, but did not complete his studies. In 1530 he returned to the Slovene Lands and became a preacher. He gradually leaned towards the Protestantism and was in 1547 expelled from Ljubljana.
While a Protestant preacher in Rothenburg, Germany, he wrote first two books in Slovene, Catechismus and Abecedarium, which were published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany. In the following years, he authored around 25 more books in Slovenian; the most important of them is the translation of the complete New Testament, which he started while living in Kempten im Allgäu.
Trubar died on 28 June 1586 in Derendingen, Germany (now part of the city of Tübingen), where he is also buried.
In 1986, the Slovenian television produced a TV series, directed by Andrej Strojan with the screen play written by Drago Jančar, in which Trubar was played by the Slovenian actor Polde Bibič.
Trubar was commemorated on the 10 tolar banknote [1] in 1992, and on the Slovenian 1 euro coin in 2007. The 500th anniversary of his birth was marked in June 2008 by the issue of a commemorative €2 coin.
An exhibition dedicated to the life and work of Primož Trubar, and the achievements of the Slovenian Reformation Movement is on display at the National Museum of Slovenia, 6 March - 31 December 2008.
The Trubar Forum [2] has printed Trubar's Catechism and Abecedarium (1550) in modern Slovene, in a scholarly edition that includes both the Trubar-era Slovene and the modern Slovene translation with scholarly notes. The "Sermon on Faith", a portion of the Catechism, is available in modern Slovene, English, German and Esperanto. Samples of all of these important works can be seen on the Trubar Forum website. [3]
Trubar's legacy among Slovenes cannot be overstated. Many say Slovenia would not exist as a nation were it not for Trubar's love for his people and their language. A German priest recently called Trubar one of the first "Europeans," for his broad understanding of and work for the people groups on central Europe.
Two quotations from the first Slovene book, the 1550 Catechism, reveal his love for his people and what he wanted for them:
Stati inu Obstati: this phrase, "Stand and Withstand," is inscribed on the Slovene 1 euro coin; in context it reads in English: "With such faith a Christian can stand and withstand in troubles and temptations and resist the unbelief that is in our flesh." [4]
"Vsem Slovencem:" this phrase is the first sentence in the first book. "To all Slovenes; grace, peace, mercy and the true knowledge of God through Jesus Christ I pray."