Juraj Križanić

Juraj Križanić

Juraj Križanić (c. 1618 – 12 September 1683), also known as Jurij Križanič, Yuriy Krizhanich, Iurii Krizhanich, and Yury Krizanitch (Russian: Юрий Крижанич; Latin: Georgius Crisanius, Czech: Jiří Križanić, French: Georges Krijanich), was a Croatian Catholic missionary and polymath who is often regarded as the earliest recorded pan-Slavist. His ideal, often misunderstood - even today - was to bring about a union of the churches, which Rome and Constantinople had tried to do without success for centuries. He believed that this might come about through closer relations between Slavic Catholicism and the Russian Orthodox Church, and supported the idea that all Slavs had a common language and ethnic origin. However, he was not a pan-Slavist if this meant seeking the political unity of all Slavic peoples under Russian leadership. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Juraj Križanić is the 1,887th most popular religious figure (down from 1,737th in 2019). (up from 2,040th in 2019)