Juraj Habdelić

Who was Juraj Habdelić?

Juraj Habdelić was a Jesuit and a Croatian writer.

His parents was Boldižar Habdelić and Margarita Kraljić. He went to gymnasium in Zagreb, studied philosophy in Graz and theology in Trnava. He worked as a teacher in Rijeka, Varaždin and Zagreb where he became the rector of Jesuit Collegium and manager of Seminary. During his rectorship gymansium was attended by Pavao Ritter Vitezović who will, in his own way, continue the Habdelić's linguistic work, but on different foundations than those taught by the Jesuit gymnasium.

Although we could hardly describe Habdelić's prose work to what we consider under the term literature, his work is still full with strength and freshness, especially in richness of language he uses. His are the works of moral-didactic issues of which the first was Zrcalo Marijansko published in Graz 1662.

Christian moral is the main theme of Habdelić's literary work, but because a man is prone in violating these strict Christian norms and easily gives himself to sin, this is the main motive of Habdelić's thoughts.