Between the front line and inner conflict : motions in the notes of military chaplains

Šimac, Miha (author)

This article presents an attempt to analyse the personal notes of Slo-venian military chaplains from the First World War in the context of the “emo-tional front line”. Based on fragments from memoirs, letters and rare diary entries by Slovenian military chaplains (e.g. Janez Cegnar, Leopold Turšič, Januš Golec), it was possible to place them in a comparative framework alongside chaplains of other belligerent armed forces and the findings of contemporary researchers who are dedicated to this topic. From this material, it can be de-duced that the Slovenian sources are only part of a broader pattern in which military chaplains became observers, comforters and chroniclers of painful and indescribable traumatic events on the front lines of the First World War – events that also left a deep mark on them.

• Language: English
• Keywords: military chaplains, First World War, emotions, records, remembrance, pastoral care, Slovenian military chaplains, comparative research
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: TEOF - Theological Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 739-762
• Numbering: Letn. 85, [št.] 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177667
• UDC: 27-722.53:355:159.942
• ISSN on article: 0006-5722
• DOI: 10.34291/BV2025/03/Simac
• COBISS.SI-ID: 262685187
• Publication date in RUL: 31.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Bogoslovni vestnik
• Shortened title: Bogosl. vestn.
• Publisher: Bogoslovna akademija, Bogoslovna akademija, Teološka fakulteta v Ljubljani, Teološka fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 0006-5722
• COBISS.SI-ID: 8745472

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Med fronto in notranjim konfliktom : čustva v zapiskih vojaških kaplanov

Abstract

Prispevek predstavlja poskus analize osebnih zapisov slovenskih vojaških duhovnikov iz prve svetovne vojne v kontekstu t. i. ‚čustvene fronte‘. Na podlagi fragmentov iz spominskih zapisov, pisem in redkih dnevniških notic slovenskih duhovnikov (npr. Janeza Cegnarja, Leopolda Turšiča, Januša Golca) je bilo te mogoče vpeti v primerjalni okvir predstavnikov duhovne oskrbe oboroženih sil drugih vojskujočih se držav in ugotovitve sodobnih raziskovalcev, ki se posvečajo tej tematiki. Iz pregledanega je mogoče razbrati, da so slovenski vpisi le del širšega vzorca, v katerem so vojni kurati postali opazovalci, tolažniki in kronisti bolečih in neopisljivih travmatičnih dogodkov na frontnih črtah prve svetovne vojne – dogodkov, ki so še kako zaznamovali tudi njih same.

• Keywords: vojaški kurati, prva svetovna vojna, čustva, zapisi, spominjanje, pastorala, slovenski vojaški kurati

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0262
• Name: Vrednote v judovsko-krščanskih virih in tradiciji ter možnosti dialoga

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: V5-24003
• Name: Religiozna in duhovna oskrba za pripadnike Slovenske vojske v 21. stoletju