Vladimír Pavol Čobrda

Vladimír Pavol Čobrda (* 20th July 1880 in Szmrecsán ( sl. Smrečany) Liptó County , Austria-Hungary , † 2 September 1967 . Ibid, Czechoslovakia ) was a Protestant minister and a Lutheran General Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Slovakia .

Life

Origin and Studies

Vladimír Pavol Čobrda (read 'Tschobrda' ) came from a Protestant pastor's family; even the grandfather was a Protestant pastor. His father Pavol Rodoľub Čobrda (* 1845, † 1931) was a Protestant pastor and consenior in Liptau and with Etela Maria geb. Mošteňanová married. The parents were nationally conscious Slovaks who, because of their national convictions, were also subject to reprisals by the authorities at the time.

Čobrda attended grammar school first in Neusohl and then in Hungarian Szarvas (Abitur 1899) to learn the Hungarian language. There he got to know Milan Rastislav Štefánik , with whom he was on friendly terms. He completed his theology studies in Eperjes and Pressburg and completed his studies at the University of Erlangen . In 1904 he was ordained a pastor by Bishop Sámuel Sárkany (* 1823, † 1911) in Pilis and became assistant preacher (chaplain) in Liptov St. Nicholas . From 1908 he was appointed pastor in his hometown.

Pastor

Čobrda welcomed the collapse of Austria-Hungary and was the signatory of the Martine Declaration of October 30, 1918. He was convinced that the establishment of a common state of Czechs and Slovaks was the right way. Between 1920 and 1931 he was a pastor (from 1922 senior of the Liptauer Seniorat) in Rosenberg . On September 10, 1930, Čobrda was installed by the then Bishop General Dušan Fajnor (* 1876, † 1933) in the episcopate of the eastern church district. In 1933, after Fajnor's death, he was appointed general bishop of the entire Slovak Evangelical Church. In Rosenberg he also met his wife, the doctor's daughter Elena b. Burjanová, whom he soon married. During his tenure in (Catholic) Rosenberg, thanks to his efforts, a new Protestant primary school was built and in 1926 the new Protestant church in Rosenberg was inaugurated.

Čobrda was also active in literature. He was the editor of various ecclesiastical magazines and also worked in the traditional Protestant publisher "Traniscius" in Liptau Sankt Nikolaus , which was (and is) mainly the editor of Christian literature. He also worked on a new Slovak Bible translation and became the main translator and editor-in-chief for the New Testament . He was also one of the leading employees of the Slovak cultural institute Matica Slovenská . Čobrda also wrote a detailed Slovak commentary on the interpretation of the Small Catechism by D. Martin Luther , which Tranoscius had several editions. Under his leadership the new service agenda for evangelical services in Slovakia was created. Numerous sermons and lectures by him also appeared in print.

In 1935 the Protestant Hus University in Prague awarded him the Dr. hc 1942 Čobrda was co-author of the pastoral letter in which a group of Protestant pastors condemned the persecution of the Jews by the then Slovak state . Because of this attitude, he was imprisoned for three months in 1944.

Church struggle in the time of communism

After World War II , Czechoslovakia came under the influence of Stalin's Soviet Union and became a 'socialist' state. In February 1948, the communists came to power in what was then the ČSR. The country was declared a “people's democracy” and came completely under the influence of Stalin's Soviet Union. This also began the persecution and harassment of the Christian churches. On the basis of Law No. 185/1948 of 1948, a decree was issued by the Ministry of the Interior, which ordered that from January 1, 1949, all church property was to be nationalized. The center of the Slovak diakonie was in Liptov St. Nicholas and it was directly subordinate to the Bishop General.

Fight for the Diaconal Hospital in Pressburg

This regulation also referred to the Pressburg Diaconal Hospital . Although the law originally only referred to the clinic, which only made up about a quarter of the total building area, the now communist state intended de facto to nationalize the entire property. With the removal of the hospital, the church's struggle against the nationalization of its facilities began over several years. The Evangelical Church also tried to protect its institutions from state access by judicial means, but it was in vain. The court dismissed the claims. It was ordered to hand over the entire building to the state. March 7, 1950 was set as the first date for the takeover. One day before, Čobrda, in his capacity as Bishop General of the Slovak Evangelical Church, ordered that no representative from the church should be present at the handover. This prevented the state commission from taking possession of the building. The takeover was delayed again for a whole year. Čobrda was sharply criticized for his attitude and in 1951 was forced to resign from his position as Bishop General. He was arrested and harassed and ended up in prison.

On February 21, 1951, the health authorities ordered the house to be vacated immediately and to be handed over to the state on March 5, 1951. This sealed the fate of the Pressburg deaconess home.

The process of the final liquidation of church property had begun. The communists invoked another law from 1948, which ordered the compulsory dissolution of all associations, including the Association of the Slovak Evangelical Diakonie. During this period the Slovak Evangelical Church AB lost all diaconal institutions not only in Bratislava, but in the whole of Slovakia. The deaconesses were forced to take off their costume if they had not already done so voluntarily - under the impression of the terrible fate of the Catholic nuns . If they wanted to keep their livelihood, they had to agree to a “voluntary” transfer to community service.

Last years and death

However, Čobrda remained true to his beliefs and convictions until the end of his life. He fought for his church. At the age of 82 he was tried again in 1962 - for "subversive activity" - and sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment. For the last years of his life, Čobrda lived in seclusion in his native Smrečany, where he died on September 2, 1967.

literature

Evanjelická encyklopédia Slovenska , Bratislava 2001, ISBN 80-968671-4-8 (Slovak)

Anton Klipp: On the history of diakonia in Preßburg. In: Karpatenjahrbuch 2009, Stuttgart 2008, p. 56ff, ISBN 978-80-89264-20-9 .

Web links

http://www.ecav.sk Čobrda_vladimir_pavel (official website of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia; Slovak)

https://www.osobnosti.sk osobnost (Slovak; accessed on November 28, 2017)

Individual evidence

↑ Pavol Rodoľub Čobrda wanted to introduce Slovak as the language of instruction in the Protestant primary schools in Liptau , which he was denied.
↑ In Eperjes he had to break off his studies because he was accused of Pan-Slavism .
↑ The “Martiner Declaration” was a document which was signed on October 30, 1918 in St. Martin an der Turz by nationally conscious Slovaks. It declared the separation of Slovakia from the Kingdom of Hungary, the self-determination of the Slovak people and the political will to found a common state with the Czechs.
^ After the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, the organization of the 'Hungarian Evangelical Church AB' was destroyed and a reorganization had to be found. A number of authoritative evangelical Slovaks who were also ardent Slovak patriots wanted to create new structures as quickly as possible. Therefore they asked the then authoritative "Minister with full authority for the administration of Slovakia" Vavro Šrobár to take the reorganization of the Evangelical Church into the hands of the state. With the ordinances of January 30th and February 7th, 1919, the latter suspended the previous autonomy by dissolving the higher presbyteries and church convents and depriving bishops, inspectors and senior citizens of their offices. Two church districts (one 'Eastern' and one 'Western') were established on the territory of Slovakia. The office of the so-called 'General Bishop' who presided over the General Convention was created as the superstructure. This regulation has not changed to the present.
↑ Rosenberg, was predominantly Catholic at that time, it was the home town and place of work of Andrej Hlinka . The evangelicals were here in the diaspora .
↑ The publishing house was founded in 1898 in memory of the pastor Georg Traniscius (* 1592, † 1637), who worked in Liptau Sankt Nikolaus . Between 1911 and 1921 Čobrda was vice president of the publishing house.
↑ The central Diaknissenheim of the Slovak Diakonie was in Liptau Sankt Nikolaus. At the end of the 1940s there were 82 deaconesses in attire .
↑ ^a ^b quoted from Anton Klipp: Zur Geschichte ... p.66ff (see literature)

personal data
SURNAME	Čobrda, Pavol Vladimír
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Protestant pastor and Lutheran general bishop of the Evangelical Church AB in Slovakia
DATE OF BIRTH	July 20, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH	Szmrecsán, Liptov County , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	2nd September 1967
Place of death	Szmrecsán, Liptov County , Czechoslovakia

[1] Pavol Rodoľub Čobrda wanted to introduce Slovak as the language of instruction in the Protestant primary schools in Liptau , which he was denied.

[2] In Eperjes he had to break off his studies because he was accused of Pan-Slavism .

[3] The “Martiner Declaration” was a document which was signed on October 30, 1918 in St. Martin an der Turz by nationally conscious Slovaks. It declared the separation of Slovakia from the Kingdom of Hungary, the self-determination of the Slovak people and the political will to found a common state with the Czechs.

[4] After the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, the organization of the 'Hungarian Evangelical Church AB' was destroyed and a reorganization had to be found. A number of authoritative evangelical Slovaks who were also ardent Slovak patriots wanted to create new structures as quickly as possible. Therefore they asked the then authoritative "Minister with full authority for the administration of Slovakia" Vavro Šrobár to take the reorganization of the Evangelical Church into the hands of the state. With the ordinances of January 30th and February 7th, 1919, the latter suspended the previous autonomy by dissolving the higher presbyteries and church convents and depriving bishops, inspectors and senior citizens of their offices. Two church districts (one 'Eastern' and one 'Western') were established on the territory of Slovakia. The office of the so-called 'General Bishop' who presided over the General Convention was created as the superstructure. This regulation has not changed to the present.

[5] Rosenberg, was predominantly Catholic at that time, it was the home town and place of work of Andrej Hlinka . The evangelicals were here in the diaspora .

[6] The publishing house was founded in 1898 in memory of the pastor Georg Traniscius (* 1592, † 1637), who worked in Liptau Sankt Nikolaus . Between 1911 and 1921 Čobrda was vice president of the publishing house.

[7] The central Diaknissenheim of the Slovak Diakonie was in Liptau Sankt Nikolaus. At the end of the 1940s there were 82 deaconesses in attire .

[:0-8] quoted from Anton Klipp: Zur Geschichte ... p.66ff (see literature)