Servant of God Narte Velikonja

Lenart "Narte" Velikonja (June 8, 1891 – June 25, 1945) was a Slovene writer and cultural figure. Narte Velikonja was born in Predmeja, the son of Ignatius Velikonja and Maria (née Beuk) Velikonja, and he was baptized Leonardus Velikonja at the parish church in Otlica. As a child, Velikonja initially considered joining the priesthood, but later decided to study law. He attended law school in Vienna, served for some time in the military, and graduated in 1918. He married a niece of Anton Bonaventura Jeglič, who was bishop of Ljubljana at the time. Together they had 13 children, ten of whom survived childhood. He performed various work for the provincial government in Ljubljana. During the Second World War he was active in the Winter Relief charity organization, and he was also the main driving force behind and one of the editors of the publication Zbornik Zimske pomoči (Winter Relief Collection). He firmly opposed the communist violence committed during the war, in which capacity he collaborated closely with Leon Rupnik and produced propaganda against the Liberation Front, including the brochure Malikovanje zločina (Idolatry of Crime, 1944). He was arrested by the communist secret police (OZNA) on May 10, 1945 and charged with collaborating with the Axis forces. He was condemned to death at a show trial on June 23, 1945 that included ten other defendants and was shot two days later. The head of the secret police, Mitja Ribičič, characterized Velikonja and his fellow accused as "unrepentant Germanizers and Hitlerites" in the hasty trial, which had an unclear legal basis and was orchestrated by the OZNA. The authorities forbade public access to his literary work and it is not known where his body was disposed of. Velikonja and his works have been written about in the Slovene emigre community. His son was the geographer Joseph Velikonja.