 Source: Wikipedia. Nicholas Drabik, Latin Drabicius was born December 5, 1588 and died July 16, 1671. His parents were born in Hungary (Slovakia). He studied at the Prerov Brethren school, where he met J.A. Komensky. In 1616 they were jointly ordained to synod in Zeravice. By profession he was a writer but became manager of the Unity College in Valasske Mezirici, but because of his alcoholism was soon Synod suspended and was not involved in the care of souls. He had prophecies and visions. During and after the Thirty Years War his vision was the fall of the Habsburgs and victories for Protestants. Among his most influential audience was a friend since youth, John Amos Comenius. Comenius stayed in correspondence with Drabik until November 1670, exactly 346 years ago. Drabicius was executed 8 months later in July 1671 at age 83, religious persecution as a heretic and traitor. (Wikipedia) First they cut off his right hand, and then beheaded him. During the trial is is said that Drabicius acted courageously and cheeky, taunting his judges and insulting them. The trial was in Bratislava, on the border of Austria and Hungary, in SW Slovakia. |   Based on my genetic findings, and the political-geography of the times, my father may well be a descendant of Drabicius who later in life was considered a fanatic because he did not follow the religious leads of the times. He was tried for heresy and treason, and executed in 1671 as an aged man in his 80's. He was put to a horrible death. Before Nicholas's calling of creating a 'temporary sect of Moravian Brethren" called Drabicians, he sold woolen material. Drabicius's parents were from Hungary (Slovakia). My father's father served in the Austro-Hungarian Military. Some of my father's parents history had parts of his family in the expansive area of Galicia in the 1800s, a historical and geographic region of Central-Eastern Europe. It had once been a kingdom straddling the (modern day) border between Poland and Ukraine. The area was named after the medieval city of Halych and was first mentioned in the year 1206 as Galiciea in Hungarian historical chronicles. In a modern sense, my grandparents were noted as Ruthenians in there first US census. In later years as wars and political-geography changed, they changed their origin to Poland.Their area of Ruthenia straddles western Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia. There was a considerable overlap between Galicia and SW Ruthenia. The historic regions of Galicia lies within modern regions of western Ukraine. In the 18th century, territories which later became modern Poland regions, were then added to Galicia. (Wikipedia (Galicia Eastern Europe) Galicia had the most ethnically diverse population of all the counties in the Austrian monarchy, consisting of mainly Poles and Ruthenians (the people known later as Ukrainians and Rusyns) as well as ethnic Jews, Germans, Armenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarian, Roma and others. Poles were Roman Catholic, Ruthenians belonged to the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church. My father's parents chose to marry in a Greek Catholic Church in Troy, NY. It was later that they started to attend a Roman Catholic Church. Another village associated with my lineage is Zawada. "Drabicius was considered a priest in the Bohemian Brotherhood who from the 1630s onward prophesied the defeat of the Habsburg Empire and the Popes, the liberation of Bohemia and Moravia. The village of Zawada belonged initially to the Duchy of Teschen, a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which after 1526 became apart of the Habsburg Monarchy."  Photo of teenage girls from a Ruthenian village. I believe that is my grandmother: first girl facing camera on the left. A unique look. My guess is some of those girls were her relatives. This photo may be from approx 1905-1907. She was born in 1893 and immigrated to the US in 1911. |
 |  My father, first generation Ruthenian (Pole) born in 1916. |
 |  Map of the Kingdom of Galicia 1914. My grandparents immigrated to the US. prior to 1914. Hungary, and Ruthenia note on map, and above the Kingdom of Poland |
My father's father wore the uniform in blue and brown as he served in the Austro-Hungarian Military Service in his late teens to early 20's prior to immigrating to the US.
My father's father in Austro-Hungarian Military uniform. Still supported Hungary. He was born in 1885. He served prior to 1908. He immigrated to the US not long after service. There were few to none stories passed on about the Drabik history... did they bury it since 1671 for fear of association with the Drabicians/Drabicius? I am left to wonder.
This medal is similar to the one on my grandfather's chest in his photograph in Austro-Hungarian Uniform.
*More on Drabicius as posted in Senate House Library, University of London: Note blog by Dr. Karen Attar.
Feature of the month: seventeenth-century prophecies. In 2016 Senate House Library is commemorating the quartercentenary of the death of William Shakespeare. This year’s Features of the Month celebrate books published in the same year as Shakespeare’s first four folios: 1623, 1632, 1664 and 1685. This is the second of three books featured from 1664.
The Prophecies of Christopher Kotterus, Christiana Poniatovia, Nicholas Drabicius …
Johann Amos Comenius
London: R. Pawlet, 1664
[H.P.L.] Kotter (RBC)
The Prophecies of Christopher Kotterus, Christiana Poniatovia, Nicholas Drabicius This small book from 1664 is the translation of a Latin work, Lux in tenebris, published as an illustrated quarto in Amsterdam in 1657. It collates the work of three prophets who portrayed the approaching ruin of the House of Austria and the speedy downfall of the Pope. Two of the three suffered thereby. Christoph Kotter (d. 1647) began a series of visions in 1616, with his prophecies assuming an increasingly concrete character from the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War. Taking imagery from the book of Revelation, he predicted victory for the Protestant lion over the Catholic Habsburg eagle, was consequently imprisoned and then exiled, and died in hunger and poverty. The Polish writer and prophetess Krystyna Poniatowska (1610-1644) started prophesying in 1627 and used plant imagery to demonstrate that a power would come from midnight (the north) to conquer and destroy the mid-day, or southern, Roman Emperor and Pope. Mikuláš Drabik (1588-1671), a priest in the Bohemian Brotherhood who from the 1630s onwards prophesied the defeat of the Habsburg Empire and the Popes, the liberation of Bohemia and Moravia and the return of the exiles, was executed brutally for his prophecies and his corpse was burned publicly.
It is through this book’s compiler, Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670), that the prophets are immortalised. Comenius was a Moravian philosopher, pedagogue and theologian. He is best represented at Senate House Library through his extremely popular educational works aiming to teach Latin to children, Janua Linguarum Reserata (“The Door of Languages Unlocked”; a textbook transposing Latin sentences about all sorts of subjects next to their vernacular equivalents) and Orbis Sensualium Pictus, a bilingual picture dictionary. The Prophecies was a more controversial volume, which upon its first appearance attracted fierce opposition from Calvinist theologians, who regarded Comenius as a dangerous heretical thinker connected with chiliasts. However, the prophecies remained unfulfilled, such that, as Pierre Bayle recorded in his dictionary, the work was forgotten after a few years. In 1683 the Turks besieged Vienna. This validated the book’s prediction of a Turkish invasion of the German empire and ensuing events, such that it was prodigiously sought after, with copies being taken out of garrets and sold at a high prices.
The English version was translated by Robert Codrington (1602/2-1665?), whose career as a translator spanned thirty years and covered the translation of literature, sermons and history from French, Latin and Spanish. It went through two editions, both in 1664. Both are scarce, with only seven copies of the first edition (one a variant issue) recorded on ESTC (the Senate House Library copy constitutes the eighth), and two copies of the second. Our copy is one of over 150 books, printed from 1553 onwards, comprising or discussing prophecies and held in the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Feature of the month: seventeenth-century prophecies. In 2016 Senate House Library is commemorating the quartercentenary of the death of William Shakespeare. This year’s Features of the Month celebrate books published in the same year as Shakespeare’s first four folios: 1623, 1632, 1664 and 1685. This is the second of three books featured from 1664.
The Prophecies of Christopher Kotterus, Christiana Poniatovia, Nicholas Drabicius …
Johann Amos Comenius
London: R. Pawlet, 1664
[H.P.L.] Kotter (RBC)
The Prophecies of Christopher Kotterus, Christiana Poniatovia, Nicholas Drabicius This small book from 1664 is the translation of a Latin work, Lux in tenebris, published as an illustrated quarto in Amsterdam in 1657. It collates the work of three prophets who portrayed the approaching ruin of the House of Austria and the speedy downfall of the Pope. Two of the three suffered thereby. Christoph Kotter (d. 1647) began a series of visions in 1616, with his prophecies assuming an increasingly concrete character from the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War. Taking imagery from the book of Revelation, he predicted victory for the Protestant lion over the Catholic Habsburg eagle, was consequently imprisoned and then exiled, and died in hunger and poverty. The Polish writer and prophetess Krystyna Poniatowska (1610-1644) started prophesying in 1627 and used plant imagery to demonstrate that a power would come from midnight (the north) to conquer and destroy the mid-day, or southern, Roman Emperor and Pope. Mikuláš Drabik (1588-1671), a priest in the Bohemian Brotherhood who from the 1630s onwards prophesied the defeat of the Habsburg Empire and the Popes, the liberation of Bohemia and Moravia and the return of the exiles, was executed brutally for his prophecies and his corpse was burned publicly.
It is through this book’s compiler, Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670), that the prophets are immortalised. Comenius was a Moravian philosopher, pedagogue and theologian. He is best represented at Senate House Library through his extremely popular educational works aiming to teach Latin to children, Janua Linguarum Reserata (“The Door of Languages Unlocked”; a textbook transposing Latin sentences about all sorts of subjects next to their vernacular equivalents) and Orbis Sensualium Pictus, a bilingual picture dictionary. The Prophecies was a more controversial volume, which upon its first appearance attracted fierce opposition from Calvinist theologians, who regarded Comenius as a dangerous heretical thinker connected with chiliasts. However, the prophecies remained unfulfilled, such that, as Pierre Bayle recorded in his dictionary, the work was forgotten after a few years. In 1683 the Turks besieged Vienna. This validated the book’s prediction of a Turkish invasion of the German empire and ensuing events, such that it was prodigiously sought after, with copies being taken out of garrets and sold at a high prices.
The English version was translated by Robert Codrington (1602/2-1665?), whose career as a translator spanned thirty years and covered the translation of literature, sermons and history from French, Latin and Spanish. It went through two editions, both in 1664. Both are scarce, with only seven copies of the first edition (one a variant issue) recorded on ESTC (the Senate House Library copy constitutes the eighth), and two copies of the second. Our copy is one of over 150 books, printed from 1553 onwards, comprising or discussing prophecies and held in the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
*Mikuláš Drabík 16711588Bratislava From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaMikuláš Drabik (also Drábik , German Nicholas Drabik,Latin Nicolaus Drabicius ) (* 5. December 1588 in Strážnice; † 16th July 1671 in Bratislava ), was a priest of the Unity ofCzech Brethren . He came from a middle class family and was classmate of John Amos Comenius . Both were consecrated to priests in 1616. Drabik was administrator of the Brethren in Valašské Meziříčí and withdrew after the Battle of White Mountain to Lednice (today Lednica ) inWaag -Tal back.
Since the late 1630s Drabik had visions . He prophesied the decline of the Habsburgs and the papal power, the liberation of Bohemia and Moravia and the return of exiles. Many believed his clairvoyant powers, this included Comenius (Comenius) as well as visions of Christoph Kotter and Christine Poniatovska in his bookLux in tenebris published. Drabík finally paid his respects to the Habsburgs and the Pope. As an eighty-year-old old man, he was brutally executed on the town hall of Pressburg and his corpse was burnt publicly at the gates on the banks of the Danube. The historian Jan Evangelista Kosina wrote about Drabík: "He was a ruthless man, an avaricious collector of the character of a ruthless, fickle, and vindictive drinker." His contemporaries, as well as his countrymen from the brotherhood, characterized him similarly.
The internet has much more to offer on Drabicius, and with translations. Although, some do not translate perfectly to English. I had posted one here, but have since deleted it to make the reading presented a bit less complexed.
My final note as a possible descendant of Nicholas Drabicius (aka Drabik, which was also the spelling of my ancestors early on in many records) : No doubt Kosina (who came much later in the 1800's) must have been a fan of the Pope; and all others feared in 1671 to speak any kinds words for Drabicius as he was set to be executed. They did not want to be literally burned as he was as yet another barbaric act by Christians. He was another person in history who was murdered in the act of religious persecution. What a shame they were so blood-thirsty and fearful to murder such an old man so viciously.
I want to release to Drabicius a birthday wish, in this now 428 year anniversary of his birth on December 5, 1588. Rest in Peace, my Drabicius. I remain a Drabician in your honor in regards to all who still seek freedom from religious persecution. The struggle and prejudices still exist.
Since the late 1630s Drabik had visions . He prophesied the decline of the Habsburgs and the papal power, the liberation of Bohemia and Moravia and the return of exiles. Many believed his clairvoyant powers, this included Comenius (Comenius) as well as visions of Christoph Kotter and Christine Poniatovska in his bookLux in tenebris published. Drabík finally paid his respects to the Habsburgs and the Pope. As an eighty-year-old old man, he was brutally executed on the town hall of Pressburg and his corpse was burnt publicly at the gates on the banks of the Danube. The historian Jan Evangelista Kosina wrote about Drabík: "He was a ruthless man, an avaricious collector of the character of a ruthless, fickle, and vindictive drinker." His contemporaries, as well as his countrymen from the brotherhood, characterized him similarly.
The internet has much more to offer on Drabicius, and with translations. Although, some do not translate perfectly to English. I had posted one here, but have since deleted it to make the reading presented a bit less complexed.
My final note as a possible descendant of Nicholas Drabicius (aka Drabik, which was also the spelling of my ancestors early on in many records) : No doubt Kosina (who came much later in the 1800's) must have been a fan of the Pope; and all others feared in 1671 to speak any kinds words for Drabicius as he was set to be executed. They did not want to be literally burned as he was as yet another barbaric act by Christians. He was another person in history who was murdered in the act of religious persecution. What a shame they were so blood-thirsty and fearful to murder such an old man so viciously.
I want to release to Drabicius a birthday wish, in this now 428 year anniversary of his birth on December 5, 1588. Rest in Peace, my Drabicius. I remain a Drabician in your honor in regards to all who still seek freedom from religious persecution. The struggle and prejudices still exist.
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