Nikola Krajačević


Nikola Krajačević Sartorius or Mikula Krajačević was a Jesuit Catholic priest, missionary and prominent person of Counter-reformation movement in Habsburg Slavonia. Krajačević was born in a family whose members were military officers at Habsburg Military Frontier against the Ottomans. In his early life he was military officer. Krajačević completed his education in Graz, Brno, Rome and Eberndorf and had successful career in Catholic church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zagreb reaching positions of teacher, canon and archdeacon. He published at least two books in which he translated religious texts to "Slovenski" language of Kajkavian dialect. To promote religious poems and make them more acceptable to population he replaced or adopted texts of folk poems with texts of religious poems.

Education and religious positions

Krajačević's father Vuk was Habsburg military officer at Military Frontier. Krajačević was also military officer at the beginning of his adult life and even participated in battles against the Ottomans. According to some views, after Krajačević left military service he studied philosophy in Graz and theology probably in Rome. In 1612 Krajačević returned to Zagreb and began his career as Catholic priest. By 1614 Krajačević reached positions of the canon in Zagreb and archdeacon in Čazma.
In 1615 he joined Jesuits and studied in Brno for a year and for two years in Eberndorf. Krajačević is also referred to as Sartorius, which was his Latinized name.
Krajačević was a teacher at the Jesuit college in Zagreb. Among his students was Juraj Križanić.