István Szelmár, also known in Slovene as Števan Selmar (23 October 1820 – 15 February 1877) was a Slovene

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest and writer in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

.Documenta-Pannonica website, ''Death of Štefan Selmar, Pastor and Writer from Kančevci - death certificate document''
/ref> His original surname was Szlámár (Slamar). His father's name was Mihály Szlámár. However, in the historical Wendic March (the modern

Prekmurje Prekmurje (; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; ) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarians in Slovenia, Hungarian minority, lying betwee ...

and Vendvidék) the Slovene names of the population were frequently altered, insofar as they were registered by the Hungarian authorities, which often misspelled them. Szelmár was born in Grad (Felsőlendva), and was ordained on 20 July 1845, in

Szombathely } Szombathely (; ; also see #Etymology, names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas County in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by the streams ''Perint'' and '' ...

. From 1845 to 1846 he served as chaplain in

Črenšovci Črenšovci (; , Prekmurje Slovene: ''Črensovci'' or ''Čerensovci'') is a settlement in the Prekmurje region in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Črenšovci. Črnec Creek, a tributary of the Ledava, flows past the se ...

, and between 1856 and 1860 in

Turnišče Turnišče (; , Prekmurje Slovene: ''Törnišče'',Snoj, Marko. 2009. ''Etimološki slovar slovenskih zemljepisnih imen''. Ljubljana: Modrijan and Založba ZRC, pp. 442–443. ) is a town in Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Turniš ...

. In 1860 he became priest in Kančevci, and in the end of 1876 he was retired. He died in Ivanovci. He wrote books in the

Prekmurje Slovene Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, Eastern Slovene, or Wendish (, , Prekmurje Slovene: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina''), is the language of Prekmurje in Easte ...

of Slovene, and was thus an influential representative of the local

Slovene literature Slovene literature is the literature written in Slovene. It spans across all literary genres with historically the Slovene historical fiction as the most widespread Slovene fiction genre. The Romantic 19th-century epic poetry written by the ...

in the

. In 1873 he translated the Hungarian book by Alajos Róder ''Bibliai Történetek'' (History of the Bible). The Slovenian translation is called ''Zgodbe Sztaroga i Nóvoga Zákona'' (Stories of the Old and New Testament).

Works

* ''Zgodbe Sztaroga i Nóvoga Zákona, za s'olszko detczo poleg knige Roder Alajosa na sztari szlovenszki jezik prenesene. Vödane po drüstvi szvetoga Stevana. Z- dopüsztsényem V. p. g. Szombotelszkoga püspeka. V- Jagri (Erlau)''. Stamp Archi Lyceo 1873.

References

*Anton Trstenjak,''Slovenci na Ogrskem'', Narodnapisna in književna črtica, OBJAVA ARHIVSKIH VIROV MARIBOR 2006.
Vasi digitális könyvtár
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szelmar, Istvan 1820 births 1877 deaths People from the Municipality of Grad 19th-century Slovenian Roman Catholic priests Slovenian writers and poets in Hungary

Works

See also

References