Jiří Třanovský

Who was Jiří Třanovský?

Jiří Třanovský, was a hymnwriter from the Cieszyn Silesia. He was sometimes called the father of Slovak hymnody and the "Luther of the Slavs." His name is sometimes anglicized to George.

Třanovský was born in Teschen, and studied at Guben and Kolberg. In 1607, he was admitted to the University of Wittenberg where Martin Luther had taught less than a century earlier. He traveled in Bohemia and Silesia in 1612 and became a teacher at St. Nicholas Gymnasium in Prague. Later, he became rector of a school in Holešov, Moravia. In 1616 he was ordained a priest in Meziříčí and served as a pastor for four years. The persecution of Lutherans in Bohemia under Ferdinand II forced him into exile. After an imprisonment in 1623 and the death of two children from plague the following year, Třanovský received a call to be pastor to a church in Bielitz, Teschen Silesia. He also became personal chaplain to Count Kasper Illehazy in 1627.

Třanovský was a lover of poetry and hymns.