Religious Topics in Oral Literature and Other Records Records of the Križevci Area by Milan Bubanović (Milan Dimitrev)

Abstract

In this paper the author contextualizes and analyses the records of the young journalist, polyglot and critic, Milan Bubanović (under the pseudonym of Milan Dimitrev) from the Križevci area with an emphasis on oral and religious topics in the said records. The aim of this study is to prove that the city of Križevci had its proper spokesman who recorded oral literature texts as well as other historical and contemporary topics having to do with Križevci, according to the instructions in the Pitanja na sve priatelje domaćih starinah i jugoslavenske pověstnice taken from the Arkiv za pověstnicu jugoslavensku established in the middle of the 19th century by writer and polyhistorian and first president of Matica hrvatska, Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski. Bubanović responded to twelve of the twenty–six questions asked by incorporating elements from several genres of oral literature — traditions and beliefs — most of them religious topics. These are the first records of the traditions, beliefs and adages (sayings) of the Križevci area. The body of oral literature recorded testifies to the fact that their oral literature was permeated by religious content even since ancient times. In his descriptions of history and of his own time, Bubanović presents much data related to the Church, namely, on the Greek Catholic Eparchy, religious orders, churches, sacred monuments, works of sacred art and renowned ecclesiastical personages of the Križevci area.