Kristína Royová (18 August 1860, in

Stará Turá Stará Turá (german: Alt-Turn, hu, Ótura) is a town in the Trenčín Region in western Slovakia. Geography It is located in the Myjava Hills close to the Little Carpathians as well as the White Carpathians. It is situated from Nové Mesto nad ...

– 27 December 1936, in Stará Turá) was a Slovak

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

activist, thinker, revivalist, novelist and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. She was founder of the Blue Cross and diaconical centre in

. Her literary works were translated into 36

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

s. During the reign of

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

in former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

literature written by her was among those frequently confiscated by state security service

ŠtB State Security ( cs, Státní bezpečnost, sk, Štátna bezpečnosť) or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it de ...

and at the same time she was blacklisted on the socialist era school curricula. She is now considered to be the Slovak author with the most frequently translated literary works and some literary critics regard her for being a "Slovak Kierkegaard".*

Early life

Parents of Kristína Royová were descendants of two prominent Lutheran families. Father August Roy, close friend of J.M. Hurban, was member of Slavic society, co-founder of Matica Slovenská and Slovak

gymnasiums A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

(high schools). Mother was from house of Holuby, her brother Jozef Ľudovít Holuby was prominent Slovak botanist, ethnographer, church historian and archaeologist and her other brother Karol Holuby was executed close to present-day Šulekovo village in the revolutionary year of 1848. The childhood of Kristína Royová was associated with Lutheran parish in

, where local chaplains were at the same time her teachers. Still, the overall education she received had not fulfilled her vast intellectual potential. The great contribution to development of her skills was a one-year study at higher secondary school in Bratislava where she managed to master the German language.

Literary works

* 1882 / 1884 - ''Tri obrázky'' (Three pictures), narratives (published in ''Národnie noviny'') * 1893 - ''Bez Boha na svete'' (Without God in the world) * 1898 - ''Božie charaktery'' (God-like characters) * 1898 - ''Splnená túžba'' (Fulfilled longing) * 1901 - ''Bludári'' (Heretics) * 1901 - ''Dôležitá pravda'' (Important truth) * 1901 - ''Istota a neistota'' (Confidence and doubt) * 1901 - ''Lotova žena'' (Lot's wife) * 1901 - ''Pekný začiatok-smutný koniec'' (Nice beginning -sad ending) * 1901 - ''Nebolo miesta'' (There was no room) * 1901 - ''Podivné hodiny'' (Peculiar clock) * 1901 - ''Za živa do priepasti'' (Live into the abyss) * 1901 - ''Stroskotaná loď'' (The wrecked ship) * 1903 - ''Sluha'' (Servant) * 1903 - ''Šťastie'' (Happiness) * 1903 - ''Za vysokú cenu'' (For a high cost) * 1904 - ''Ako zbohatnúť'' (How to get reach) * 1904 - ''Divné milosrdenstvo'' (Amazing mercy) * 1904 - ''Šťastní ľudia'' (Happy people) * 1904 - ''Divní rozsievači'' (Peculiar sowers) * 1904 - ''Dieťa hausírerov'' (The child of peddlers) * 1906 - ''Vo vyhnanstve'' (In the exile) * 1907 - ''Šťastlivé Vianoce'' (Happy Christmas) * 1909 - ''Ako kvapôčka putovala'' (How the little drop wandered around) * 1909 - ''V slnečnej krajine'' (In the sunny land) * 1909 - ''Opilcove dieťa'' (The child of alcoholic) * 1910 - ''Ako prišli lastovičky domov'' (How the swallows returned home) * 1910 - ''Ako zomrel slávičok'' (The death of nightingale) * 1910 - ''Nemoc a pomoc'' (The disease and help) * 1910 - ''Tarsenský'' * 1912 - ''Za presvedčenie čili z Mezopotámie do Kanaánu'' (Because of persuasion hence from Mesopotamia to Canaan) * 1913 - ''Stratení'' (Lost) * 1915 - ''Pošta'' (The mail) * 1917 - ''Pozdrav zo Starej Turej'' (Greetings from Stará Turá) * 1920 - ''Druhá žena'' (The second wife) * 1920 - ''Zpráva z roku 1919'' (The message from 1919) * 1920 - ''Otcovrah'' (The parricide) * 1921 - ''Keď nikde nebolo pomoci'' (When there was no help anywhere) * 1921 - ''Štyri rozprávočky pre veľké a malé deti'' (Four fairy-tales for big and small kids) * 1921 - ''V pevnej ruke'' (In the firm grasp) * 1922 - ''Ztratení'' (Lost) * 1922 - ''Traja kamaráti'' (Three friends) * 1922 - ''Zachránená'' (Saved) * 1924 - ''Výstražný sen'' (Warning dream) * 1924 - ''Poslednia cesta'' (The last journey) * 1924 - ''Kde bol jeho otec?'' (Where was his father?) * 1925 - ''Na rozhraní'' (On the verge) * 1926 - ''Prišiel domov'' (Returned home) * 1926 - ''Za vysokú cenu'' (For a high cost) * 1927 - ''Susedia'' (The neighbours) * 1927 - ''Ako trpaslík zabil obra'' (How the troll killed ogre) * 1927 - ''Blízko ešte neni vnútri'' (Close, but still not inside) * 1928 - ''Staniša'' * 1929 - ''Za svetlom a so svetlom. Rozpomienky Kristíny Royovej'' (Going after light and with light. Memories of Krisína Royová) * 1930 - ''Navrátený raj'' (Given back paradise) * 1930 - ''Abigail'' * 1931 - ''Keď život začínal. Slnečné dieťa'' (When life aroused. The sunny child.) * 1935 - ''Tuláci'' (Wanderers) * ''Kúzlo otčiny'' (The charm of the fatherland), narrative (available only in handwriting) * ''V okruží panslavizmu'' (Surrounded by

panslavism Pan-Slavism, a movement which crystallized in the mid-19th century, is the political ideology concerned with the advancement of integrity and unity for the Slavic people. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans, where non-Slavic empires had ruled ...

), narrative (available only in handwriting) * ''Pod práporom lásky'' (Under the flag of love), narrative (available only in handwriting)

References

* * *

External links

Kristina Royova Memorial Site Stara Tura
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Royova, Kristina 1860 births 1936 deaths People from Stará Turá Slovak Lutherans Slovak religious leaders Slovak children's writers 19th-century Slovak women writers 19th-century Slovak writers 20th-century Slovak women writers 20th-century Slovak writers Slovak women children's writers