Epidémia cholery a starostlivosť o zdravie Slovákov v Báčke podľa kanonických vizitácií z roku 1835 a matrík zosnulých v 19. storočí

DANIELA MARČOKOVÁ
Oddelenie slovakistiky Filozofickej fakulty Univerzity v Novom Sade

Cholera epidemic and care for health of Slovaks in Bačka according to ecclesiastical visitations in 1835 and funeral register books in the 19th century

Abstract: A cholera epidemic broke out in India in the 1820s. and was spreading in Southeast Asia. It came to southern Russia in 1829, while in Hungary, it ap-peared in 1831. In Vojvodina, it appeared and threatened the population in 1831 and again to a lesser extent in 1836, 1849 and 1873. Historiography has so far paid almost no attention to the course of this epidemic in the Slovak settlements of Vojvodina. This work is based on the research of the author’s chronicle of the Evangelical priest Ján Stehla of Petrovac from the period of 1818-1862 and the ecclesiastical visitations of Slovak evangelical congregations in Bačka from 1835. The examined chronicle proved to be a rich narrative historiographical source for this topic. It records the beginning and spread of the epidemic, the number of infected and dead, the fear of people in the moments of the threat of terrifying death, as well as the depth of pain and suffering of the survivors. The epidemic in the affected villages caused the death of a significant number of the population and significantly changed their daily lives. Data from the examined church sources were analyzed, critically considered and compared with data in registers and existing literature.

Keywords: cholera epidemic, Bačka-Srem Seniorat, Slovaks, health care, conta-gious diseases.