2023Personalities - Jan Gotcar (1823-1883) - First Day Cover

Ján Nepomuk Gotčár (1st June 1823, Makov – 19th August 1883, Bratislava-Rača) was a distinguished Slovak Catholic priest, an abbot, teacher, national revivalist, founding member of Slovak Matica (SM), Saint Adalbert Association and the Catholic grammar school in Kláštor pod Znievom. He was born in the Kysuce region into the family of the manor gamekeeper, Ján Gotčár, and Anna Bauerová. In May 1825, he lost his father and his widowed mother moved, together with her children, to Žilina. From 1834 to 1838, the young Ján studied at the lower grammar school in Žilina. He then moved on to Cieszyn, later to Kecskemét and finished his grammar school studies in Oradea From 1842 onwards, he studied philosophy at the Trnava University and later he went on to study theology in Banská Bystrica. After he completed his theological studies, he was appointed as a professor by Bishop Jozef Rudňanský of Banská Bystrica and he worked at the Royal Catholic Grammar School in Banská Bystrica, where he taught geography, history and languages (Slovak, Latin and Hungarian).