Atanasije Dimitrijević Sekereš

Atanasije Dimitrijević Sekereš or Athanasius Demetrovich Szekeres (18 January 1738, in Győr, today's Hungary – 30 April 1794, in Vienna, Austria) was a Serbian jurist, writer, and first Serbian Orthodox priest and later Uniate cleric, and Imperial-Royal Illyrian Court Deputation Councilor and censor of all Serbian, Romanian, Greek and Armenian books printed in the Habsburg monarchy. A proponent of enlightened absolutism, he held the office of censor of the Illyrian Deputation for two decades and was responsible for printing and reprinting hundreds of books during the reigns of Maria Theresa, Joseph II, Leopold II, and Francis II.

Biography

He was born in Györ on the 18 of January 1738 and baptized in the Serbian Orthodox Church. His father, a small peasant-farmer, died when Atanasije was in his teens. He was brought up to farm work, but he cultivated all his leisure in reading, and when he was seventeen entered the University of Vienna Law School where he picked up Latin and German. Gradually, and by dint of infinite patience and concentration, the young man became a master of many languages, namely German, Hungarian, Romanian, Greek, Slovak, Russian, and Old Church Slavonic, all languages commonly read and spoken in the empire among Eastern Orthodox Slavs and their co-religionists. Atanasije was a pragmatist who eventually in mid-1776 converted to Roman Catholicism (Uniate) in order to secure his future. But, from then on he became one of the most hated and vilified persons amongst his compatriot