Vasa Živković

Vasilije "Vasa" Živković (1819–1891) was a Serbian poet and Orthodox priest. He is highly regarded in Serbian culture for his role in collecting verses from oral traditions of his people. His literary opus sustained only half of his poems to be printed since he was prone to self-criticism. His contemporaries were poets Jovan Ilić, father of Vojislav Ilić, Stevan Vladislav Kačanski, and many others.

1887 print.

Biography

Vasilije Živković was born in the town of Pančevo in Banat on the 31st of January 1819, where his father, a soldier of the Serbian Military Frontier, was then resident. At an early age the military spirit entered into his blood, throughout life, even when he became a priest, he was characterized by the qualities of the ideal soldier. Here he attended Elementary school, and later enrolled in public gymnasia of Szeged and Sremski Karlovci. At the age of nineteen (1838), he studied law at Pest and Pozun (Bratislava). In 1841 he came to Vrsac to study theology at the Serbian Orthodox Seminary, where he along with a few others founded an organization called Srpska Sloga Banatska (Serbian unity of Banat). Ordained in 1846 by the bishop of Pančevo, where he accepted the curacy of the town, which he retained for the rest of his life. In 1848 he participated in the 1848 Revolution on the side of the Austrian emperor against the Hungarian insurgents. Father Vasa represented the constituents of Pančevo and area at the Karlovci Sabor during a very interesting and important period, from 1864 on, and was performing diplomatic duties at the time when the affairs of the Serbs in Banat were attracting an unusual amount of attention throughout Europe. In 1868 he was elevated to archpriest.

In an award-winning autobiography From Immigrant to Inventor (published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York and London, 1924), Serbian-American physicist Mihajlo Pupin remembered hearing one of many Petar II Petrović Njegoš's lyrical verses recited by Vasilije Živković, "The verse from Njegoš I obtained from a Serbian poet, who was an archpriest, a protoyeray, and who was my religious teacher in Pančevo. His name, Vasa Živković, I shall never forget, because it is sweet music to my ear on account of the memories of affectionate friendship he cherished for me." On numerous occasions, Very Reverend Živković rescued young Pupin from either being expelled from school or from being sent back to his village. When young Pupin got himself into trouble with the Austrian authorities after being caught in a scrimmage with the Austrian flag under his feet, expulsion from school stared him in the face, Živković once again came to his rescue. It was Živković and his congregation that promised assistance should the financial burden attached to Pupin's studies in electro-mechanics in Prague in 1872 become too heavy a burden for his parents.

Živković died at Pančevo on the 25th of June 1891. His closing years were vexed by intrigue and sadness. Father Sava's sensitive nature was subjected to extreme suffering, arising mainly from the political opposition aroused by his sympathy with Serb revolutionary ideas of the time.

Works

As early as 1838 he began to contribute to the Pančevo reviews, and his verses found their way into most of the Serbian literary periodicals favorable to the Romantic poets and writers. Having begun, however, to write under the influence of Lukijan Musicki and the contemporary leadership of German and world literature at the same time, he retained the classical tradition, though he adopted innovations of Goethe and Schiller. His style shows the influence of Schiller, of whom he was an assiduous disciple, according to literary critic Jovan Skerlić. His first volume of poems appeared in 1856-1858, and among numerous later volumes are his Collected Poems, published posthumously in Belgrade in 1907, in several tomes.

Father Vasa is one of the most patriotic Serbian poets who wrote lyrics so popular that Serbs to this day continue to sing them, not necessarily remembering the author of such songs as Rado ide Srbin u vojnike.... and Or'o klikće sa visine...., which have become hymns in his own lifetime, let alone more than a century later. Many of his poems have somehow entered into the annals of Serbian national patriotic opus, though few know who wrote them: Father Vasa!

References

• Duško Kovačević, Vasa Živković : život, rad i pesništvo. Narodna biblioteka Veljko Vlahović Pančevo, Narodna biblioteka Srbije Belgrade, Matica srpska Novi Sad 1990 ISBN 86-7035-039-4.
• Jovan Skerlić, Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti / History of Modern Serbian Literature (Belgrade, 1914, 1921), pages 198-199.