József Ficzkó

Who is József Ficzkó?

József Ficzkó or Fitzkó was a Slovene born Roman Catholic priest and writer. After becoming priest in the village of Peresznye near the actual Hungarian-Austrian border he became one of the most important Burgenland Croatian writers of his time.

Ficzkó was born in Boreča, then part of Hungary, which from 1804 was part of the Austrian Empire. His parents were Miklós Ficzkó and Ilona Ficzkó. He studied in Szombathely with the help of Miklós Küzmics, a prekmurian writer, and was later consecrated in 1797.

From 1802 until his death Ficzkó was priest in the small village of Peresznye, near Kőszeg, in an area in Western Hungary in which many Burgenland Croats lived, as they were called later. Here he learned the Croatian language in the version spoken there and wrote books in Burgenland Croatian. Ficzkó was a significant writer working in the standard language of the Burgenland Croats. His style was known as the Baroque.