Michal Godra

Michal Godra was born in January 25, 1801 in Bohunice, Slovakia. Elementary school he attended in his birth town and in Banská Štiavnica, after that he studied in Modra (1817-1818) and in evangelical lycee in Bratislava (1821-1822). He finished theology in Vienna (1825-1827). In the years 1828-1831 he was a tutor in family of Toša Stratimirović in Kulpín, in the years 1832-1834 in the family of count Ján Gottlieb Steinlein von Saalenstein in Hontianske Horné Semerovce and in Pest, in the years 1834-1836 in Association of Slovak literature lovers in Pest he helped Ján Kollár and Martin Hamuljak to redact the almanac Dawn, and finally, in September 27, 1836 he became a professor and principal of Senior Slovak-German high school in Novi Vrbas, where he stayed until November 2, 1868 when he was fired.

Together with Pavel Jozef Šafárik and Juraj Rohoň in the year 1829 he established in Gložan the reading community Sociatas slavica, which, however, after Rohoň‘s (October 22, 1831), Godra’s departure to Pest (October 27, 1831) and Šafárik’s departure to Prague (April 6, 1833) ceased to exist. Godra last years of his life spent in the parish of evangelical pastor Juraj Mrva in Bački Petrovac, where he died in March 1, 1874. (In this same flat in the years 1870-1874 resided also a prosaist Félix Kutlík, to whom Godra influenced a lot.)

Michal Godra in Latin language published these poetic bibliophilic publishings: Ode, qua [….] Danieli Kanka [….] (1819), Ode [….] Samueli Zsigmondy [….] (1821), Vota Dno Danieli Stanislaides [….] (1822) and Carmen Pastoriam […], and in Czech language Znĕlky Jeho Dvojictíhodnosti a Vysoceučenosti, Jánu Kollárovi [….] (1835). His Czech and Latin verses are saved in Literary Archive of Matica Slovenska in Martin.