Vasa Živković

Vasilije "Vasa" Živković (1819–1891) was a Serbian poet and Orthodox priest. He is highly regarded in Serbian culture for his role in collecting verses from oral traditions of his people. His literary opus sustained only half of his poems to be printed, since he was prone to self-criticism. His contemporaries were poet Jovan Ilić, father of Vojislav Ilić, Stevan Vladislav Kačanski, and many others.

Vasilije Živković was born in the town of Pančevo in Banat on the 31st of January 1819, where his father, a soldier of the Serbian Military Frontier, was then resident. At an early age the military spirit entered into his blood, throughout life, even when he became a priest, he was characterized by the qualities of the ideal soldier. Here he attended Elementary school, and later enrolled in public gymnasia of Szeged and Sremski Karlovci. At the age of nineteen (1838) he studied law at Pest and Pozun (Bratislava). In 1841 he came to Vrsac to study theology at the Serbian Orthodox Seminary, where he along with a few others founded an organization called Srpska Sloga Banatska (Serbian unity of Banat). Ordained in 1846 by the bishop of Pančevo, where he accepted the curacy of the town, which he retained for the rest of his life. In 1848 he participated in the 1848 Revolution on the side of the Austrian emperor against the Hungarian insurgents. Father Vasa represented the constituents of Pančevo and area at the Karlovci Sabor during a very interesting and important period, from 1864 on, and was performing diplomatic duties at the time when the affairs of the Serbs in Banat were attracting an unusual amount of attention throughout Europe. In 1868 he was elevated to archpriest.

In an award-winning autobiography From Immigrant to Inventor (published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York and London, 1924), Serbian-American physicist Mihajlo Pupin remembered hearing one of many Petar II Petrović Njegoš's lyrical verses recited by Vasilije Živković, "The verse from Njegoš I obtained from a Serbian poet, who was an arch-priest, a protoyeray, and who was my religious teacher in Pančevo. His name, Vasa Živković, I shall never forget, because it is sweet music to my ear on account of the memories of affectionate friendship he cheerished for me." On numerous occasions Very Reverend Živković rescued young Pupin from either being expelled from school or from being sent back to his village. When young Pupin got himself into trouble with the Austrian authorities after being caught in a scrimmage with the Austrian flag under his feet, expulsion from school stared him in the face, Živković once again came to his rescue. It was Živković and his congregation that promised assistance should the financial burden attached to Pupin's studies in electro-mechanics in Prague in 1872 become too heavy a burden for his parents.

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