József Kossics

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József Kossics, also known in Slovene as Jožef Košič (around October 9, 1788, Bogojina, Kingdom of Hungary, today Slovenia – December 26, 1867. Felsőszölnök, Hungary) was a Hungarian-Slovenian writer, Catholic priest, ethnologist, linguist, poet and historian. Was of Croatian descent.

His father József Kossics teacher born in Varaždin. In 1780 enter employement in Hungary, in Bogojina (Bagonya). In 1785 was to take sy Anna Kregár daugther of a petty nobleman of Ivanci. His brother Ferenc was as well priest and lived in Zagreb.

He took the office of priest in the first half of 19th century in Alsószölnök and later in Felsõszölnök (1829-1867) in the Vas country. He was also a poet, linguist, historian and an ethnologist. He was a subscriber of the Hungarian scientific revue Tudományos gyűjtemény. In 1828, his monograph about the Hungarian Slovenes appeared in this magazine, gaining him high respect in the ethnological circles. Kossics continued to follow attentively the developments in the Hungarian scientific and cultural life.

In his pursuit of valorization of ethnoligic peculiarities, he later developed a somehow activistic stance. In 1837, he joined an appeal, according to which a poem from every ethnic group living in the Kingdom of Hungary should be read in the respective mother tongue on the occasion of the opening of the Hungarian National Theatre in Pest. For this purpose,Kossics himself wrote a wrote a poem in his Slovene mother tongue and added a Hungarian coarse translation.