József Szakovics

Who was József Szakovics?

József Szakovics, Slovene Jožef Sakovič, German orthography Joseph Sakowitsch, was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest and author in the Prekmurje region. Szakovics was a defender of the linguistic rights of the Hungarian Slovenes and their Slovene identity, promoting the use of the Prekmurian language of Slovenian.

He was born in Vadarci, then in the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary, as the son of Hungarian Slovenes Mátyás Szakovics and Ilona Mácsek. He studied theology in Szombathely, and was consecrated as a priest on July 2, 1899. He served as a parish vicar in Pápóc and a chaplain in Zalaegerszeg. In 1900, he became a chaplain in Rechnitz in the region known today as Burgenland, and later in Črenšovci, Tótszentmárton, Tišina, and Weiden bei Rechnitz. In 1906, he became a parish vicar in Beltinci, and in 1909 in Cankova. From 1909 to 1913 he served as a vicar in Alsószölnök, near Szentgotthárd, in an ethnically mixed area inhabited by Germans, Slovenes, and Magyars. From 1913 to 1917, he was a vicar in Turnišče, and later the parish priest there until 1928. He died 1930 in Alsószölnök, Hungary.