Jon\u00e1\u0161 Z\u00e1borsk\u00fd was a Slovak novelist, playwright, poet, historian, journalist and priest. He was born in 1812 in a peasant family in the village of Z\u00e1borie (now Martin district). He studied at grammar schools in Ke\u017emarok and Levo\u010da, graduated in theology at the Evangelical Academy in Pre\u0161ov and later studied at the University of Halle in Germany. From 1834 to 1839 he was a chaplain in Pozdi\u0161ovce, in 1840 he became a parish priest in Rankovce. After the fire of his rectory in 1842, he converted to the Catholic Church and worked at the German rectory in Ko\u0161ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He disagreed with \u013dudov\u00edt \u0160t\u00far and his codification of the written Slovak language and considered his national programme unrealistic. In 1848 he was imprisoned for possession of the Requests of the Slovak Nation, and in 1850 he was appointed professor of Greek at the law faculty in Ko\u0161ice. From 1850 to 1853, he also worked as editor of the government-run Slovak Newspaper in Vienna, from where he had to leave due to conflicts with the censorship. In 1853 he became a parish priest in the eastern Slovak village of \u017dup\u010dany, where he worked until his death, adopted a new form of Slovak and devoted himself mainly to literary activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jon\u00e1\u0161 Z\u00e1borsk\u00fd's oeuvre is extensive. It includes classicist poetic compositions (Zehry, The Entry of Christ into Paradise), satirical prose (Fausti\u00e1da, The Shofranks, On the Seven Dukes of Hungary, Chru\u0148o and Mandragora, Frndol\u00edna), didactic humoresques (Two Days in Chujava, Kulifaj), and autobiographical prose (The Panslavist Parson), historical short stories (Buld, Sv\u00e4topluk's Betrayal, Mazep's Love), a syllabotonic poetic composition (The Death of Janosik), and many dramas (The Last Days of Great Moravia, The Arp\u00e1ds, The Resistance of the Danube Slavs, Pansl\u00e1v, Holub, Batory, Striga, the so-called \"The Resistance of the Danube Slavs\", the \"The Last Days of Great Moravia\", the \"The Last Days of Great Moravia\", the \"The Last Days of Great Moravia\", the \"The Last Days of Great Moravia\", the \"The Last Days of Great Moravia\", the \"The Last Days of Great Moravia\". L\u017eedimitrij\u00e1d, etc.). He wrote an extensive historical work History of the Kingdom of Hungary from the beginning to the times of Sigismund. The main themes of his work are historical facts and autobiographical elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n