ABSTRACT
The text presents some auto/biographical books, which were written by the Slovenian women immigrants to the United States or their descendants. The books deal with the immigrant experiences of women from the first and the second immigration waves. From Slovenia to America by Marie Prisland includes considerable information on Slovenian history, Slovenian communities in the United States and notable women and men, but also her autobiography. Immigrant Woman by Mary Molek is a fictionalized biography of author's mother – an immigrant woman at the beginning of the twentieth century, who led an extremely poor but nevertheless uncompromisingly principled and proud life. Irene P. Odorizzi edited a compilation of twenty one life stories, titled The Footsteps through Time. The majority of the narrators, nineteen out of twenty one, were Slovenian immigrant women who had arrived in America with the first immigration wave and they told the stories about the hardships and extremeley hard work. Mirella Besednjak described her immigrant life after the World War II in the book, Roža med trni, published recently in Slovenia. From the same period is also the immigrant experience described in the book by Josephine Janezic, Pepca’s Struggle.

ABSTRACT
The text presents some auto/biographical books, which were written by the Slovenian women immigrants to the United States or their descendants. The books deal with the immigrant experiences of women from the first and the second immigration waves. From Slovenia to America by Marie Prisland includes considerable information on Slovenian history, Slovenian communities in the United States and notable women and men, but also her autobiography. Immigrant Woman by Mary Molek is a fictionalized biography of author's mother – an immigrant woman at the beginning of the twentieth century, who led an extremely poor but nevertheless uncompromisingly principled and proud life. Irene P. Odorizzi edited a compilation of twenty one life stories, titled The Footsteps through Time. The majority of the narrators, nineteen out of twenty one, were Slovenian immigrant women who had arrived in America with the first immigration wave and they told the stories about the hardships and extremeley hard work. Mirella Besednjak described her immigrant life after the World War II in the book, Roža med trni, published recently in Slovenia. From the same period is also the immigrant experience described in the book by Josephine Janezic, Pepca’s Struggle.

ABSTRACT
The goal of the research within which present deliberation arose is to estimate the role and significance women have (had) in migrational contexts for the preservation of source culture of which part is national identity as well, in the new environment. In the period of the national state, national identity and language become the principal symbols of source culture. Frequently the latter is reduced to them, which is characteristic in particular for political discourses that are nationalistically toned. Therefore, I deal in my treatise with the significance of women-emigrants in preserving national identity in immigrant environments.

Socialisation is a process, which is among other of key importance for establishing and preserving ethnic/national/nationality identities within an individual. It is being realized through various socialisation agents. Most significant are its non-conscious aspects of constitution of reality within an individual. Among the most important socializators belongs the family, which is in patriarchal contexts entirely the domain of women. Thus the importance and the role of women for the preservation of national identity are from that viewpoint evident and undisputed. From the viewpoint of preserving the source culture, women are in emigration of key importance in maintaining other socializors and mechanisms of identification: teaching language and mediation of knowledge on source culture (teachers), concern with the young people, publishing newspapers with the young and for them, organising society activities for children and youth, maintaining rituals, myths and symbols that are important for the preservation of group identities …

Furthermore, I am interested in the contribution on whether with them brought patriarchal values remain unchanged, particularly in migrations to less patriarchal environments. For women migration presented a chance to rid of discriminatory patriarchal bonds of the local environment. This is especially valid for women that were coming from the typical rural sphere in the last decades of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries. The majority of them breathed easier in the new environments. They began living more independently and made progress socially. Consequently, partnership relations changed. The latter is not valid for cases of compulsory after-war migrations when women experienced social regression. Specific situation is indicated with mixed marriages where we come across the so-called gender asymmetry, which on the one hand presents weaknesses and on the other the advantages for women migrants in comparison to male migrants. In most cases, women in mixed marriages women see to the children come to know the source culture and acquaint with (or learn) the language, and capture knowledge on their origin.

Let us in the conclusion expose the fact that in researching the role and significance of women we come across great difficulties because of the so-called modesty syndrome. Women have in patriarchal relations, which are pervaded with gender dichotomy, and in which they were socialized, introverted sexual stereotypes as well and the conceptions on insignificancy of some aspects of everyday life (the so-called private sphere versus the public one) that are in women’s domain. The notion of insignificance of everything women did in their lives derives from this conception. History is silent about women who despite everything entered the so-called public life, or masculinisation of their achievements occurs.

Marina Lukšič-Hacin is PhD of Sociology and Political Anthropology, Research Fellow, Head of the Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The goal of the research within which present deliberation arose is to estimate the role and significance women have (had) in migrational contexts for the preservation of source culture of which part is national identity as well, in the new environment. In the period of the national state, national identity and language become the principal symbols of source culture. Frequently the latter is reduced to them, which is characteristic in particular for political discourses that are nationalistically toned. Therefore, I deal in my treatise with the significance of women-emigrants in preserving national identity in immigrant environments.

Socialisation is a process, which is among other of key importance for establishing and preserving ethnic/national/nationality identities within an individual. It is being realized through various socialisation agents. Most significant are its non-conscious aspects of constitution of reality within an individual. Among the most important socializators belongs the family, which is in patriarchal contexts entirely the domain of women. Thus the importance and the role of women for the preservation of national identity are from that viewpoint evident and undisputed. From the viewpoint of preserving the source culture, women are in emigration of key importance in maintaining other socializors and mechanisms of identification: teaching language and mediation of knowledge on source culture (teachers), concern with the young people, publishing newspapers with the young and for them, organising society activities for children and youth, maintaining rituals, myths and symbols that are important for the preservation of group identities …

Furthermore, I am interested in the contribution on whether with them brought patriarchal values remain unchanged, particularly in migrations to less patriarchal environments. For women migration presented a chance to rid of discriminatory patriarchal bonds of the local environment. This is especially valid for women that were coming from the typical rural sphere in the last decades of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries. The majority of them breathed easier in the new environments. They began living more independently and made progress socially. Consequently, partnership relations changed. The latter is not valid for cases of compulsory after-war migrations when women experienced social regression. Specific situation is indicated with mixed marriages where we come across the so-called gender asymmetry, which on the one hand presents weaknesses and on the other the advantages for women migrants in comparison to male migrants. In most cases, women in mixed marriages women see to the children come to know the source culture and acquaint with (or learn) the language, and capture knowledge on their origin.

Let us in the conclusion expose the fact that in researching the role and significance of women we come across great difficulties because of the so-called modesty syndrome. Women have in patriarchal relations, which are pervaded with gender dichotomy, and in which they were socialized, introverted sexual stereotypes as well and the conceptions on insignificancy of some aspects of everyday life (the so-called private sphere versus the public one) that are in women’s domain. The notion of insignificance of everything women did in their lives derives from this conception. History is silent about women who despite everything entered the so-called public life, or masculinisation of their achievements occurs.

Marina Lukšič-Hacin is PhD of Sociology and Political Anthropology, Research Fellow, Head of the Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The missionary and fruit grower Franc Pirc wrote and published in Slovene different types of texts, particularly handbooks for fruit growing, poems and letters. It can be seen from the style of writing, forming of texts and use of language means that he aspired to educate in religion and fruit growing, as well in technical texts as in poems. Pirc’s poems are actually prose texts, formed in verses with rhythm and rhyme. In his poems, Pirc used mainly words typical for religious texts. In the fruit growing manuals he wrote down and preserved technical terms used in Carniola. For novelties in fruit growing he presumably created some new terms: posodovci, pritlikavci. There are very few Germanisms in his texts. More noticeable is the positioning of the verb at the end of the sentence. Pirc as well as Franc Mihael Paglovec derives from the tradition of the Carniolian version of literary language; yet the influence of spoken Carniolian language, particularly the writing down of vocal reduction is with him much stronger. A comparison with the first edition of the Kranjski vrtnar (1830, 1834) and the revised edition (1863), which the publishers modernized linguistically, reveals linguistic tendencies of the second half of the 19th century (moving of the verb from the end to the middle of the sentence, clearing out Germanisms, semantic distinction of use of the modal verb moči to morati, treba je, moči, use of unreduced forms, particularly the infinitive).

Marjeta Humar is head of the Section for terminology dictionaries of the Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša of the ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The missionary and fruit grower Franc Pirc wrote and published in Slovene different types of texts, particularly handbooks for fruit growing, poems and letters. It can be seen from the style of writing, forming of texts and use of language means that he aspired to educate in religion and fruit growing, as well in technical texts as in poems. Pirc’s poems are actually prose texts, formed in verses with rhythm and rhyme. In his poems, Pirc used mainly words typical for religious texts. In the fruit growing manuals he wrote down and preserved technical terms used in Carniola. For novelties in fruit growing he presumably created some new terms: posodovci, pritlikavci. There are very few Germanisms in his texts. More noticeable is the positioning of the verb at the end of the sentence. Pirc as well as Franc Mihael Paglovec derives from the tradition of the Carniolian version of literary language; yet the influence of spoken Carniolian language, particularly the writing down of vocal reduction is with him much stronger. A comparison with the first edition of the Kranjski vrtnar (1830, 1834) and the revised edition (1863), which the publishers modernized linguistically, reveals linguistic tendencies of the second half of the 19th century (moving of the verb from the end to the middle of the sentence, clearing out Germanisms, semantic distinction of use of the modal verb moči to morati, treba je, moči, use of unreduced forms, particularly the infinitive).

Marjeta Humar is head of the Section for terminology dictionaries of the Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša of the ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
Few were Slovene immigrants in America who in the middle of the 19th century set up a farm in Minnesota, which in 1858 became part of the United States of America. In that period, people were immigrating mainly from the German Catholic provinces, for example from Bavaria, from the river Rhine Basin and from Westfalia. In the 60s, as well only a smaller number of Slovenes decided to immigrate to the countryside of Minnesota. They were settling particularly in the region of Stearns County, Minnesota where the Slovene missionary Franz Pierz/Franc Pirc (1785-1880) was active. Pirc was also an immigrant commissioner and an advocate of the idea that Minnesota should become the most Catholic American state (a monograph on Pirc was published in English: William P. Furlan, In Charity unfeigned. The Life of Father Francis Xavier Pierz. Diocese of St. Cloud, 1952). Consequently, he was inviting Catholics and entire families to establish in the new environment common settlements with Catholic churches and priests as a basis of new life in new world. Yet Slovenes did not respond to that invitation in large extent. Thus, Minnesota did not become a New Slovenia as some in the homeland wished (see: Slovene Catholic gazette Zgodnja danica, and Novice 1865). The Slovenes lived in the settlements of St. Joseph, St. Jacob, Kraintown (St. Anthony) and elsewhere.

In 1855, Apolonija sister of missionary Pirc, joined him with her whole family, that is the husband, four children and son-in-law of the eldest daughter. With the help of her brother, they gained 160 acres of land in St. Joseph, Minnesota, and were farming successfully in the following decades. Apolonija was the second woman (the first was the sister of Friderik Baraga Antonija Höffern in 1837) and the first mother who came in the 19th century from Slovenia to America. In that year, Franz Pierz published a book Die Indianer in Nord=Amerika, ihre Lebensweise, Sitten, Gebräuche u.s.w. nach zehnjärigem Aufenthalte und gesammelten Erfahrungen unter den vershiedenen Stämmen, St. Louis with a supplement Eine Kurze Beschreibung des Minnesota-Territoriums. The book was intended for the German Catholic immigrants in the U.S.A., and the short description of Minnesota to help people decide to settle in the then Territory of Minnesota. Pirc was inviting them through German newspapers, for example Der Wahrheitsfreund, Cincinnati, Ohio. In that period, he was not yet inviting Slovenes to America; he did so after the end of the American civil war (1865).

Exceptional is the significance of missionary letters and letters of rare laics who wrote their relatives and friends in the homeland. Not so few were entirely, abridged or just as summaries published by the then newspapers in the homeland, the most in Zgodnja danica and in Novice. Many letters were written in such a manner that they were in regard of content directly suggesting publication in a newspaper. Thus, many private letters gained public character. (Incidentally, the conference Reading the Emigrant Letter : Innovative approaches and interpretations, Carleton Centre for History of Migration, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, August 7-9, 2003, was dedicated to such issues.) The Catholic press readily published missionary and as well rare Slovene laic letters as they spoke of spreading and preserving Catholic religion not only among the natives but also among the immigrants from Europe. With their help, they were collecting contributions for the work of missionaries. We classify those early letters, among them Apolonija’s, among informative messages about possibilities for a new life in Minnesota, which were – in regard of personal experience – enthusiastic or full of disappointment, but far from stereotypic views in the sense that in America dollars were lying about on the ground. All agree there are plenty chances for success, but one must work hard for it.

Apolonija’s letter, which she herself wrote on November 7th 1855, and was published in Novice on January 9th 1856, is about two themes: the journey from Ljubljana over Vienna to Hamburg, from there by steamboat to Liverpool, and then by sailing ship together with 313 passengers to New York (a storm and the seasickness made strong impression on her), and about their beginnings of farming in St. Joseph. She was satisfied and invited to America all brave enough as there was plenty of land there. The editor of the newspaper Novice, Dr. Janez Bleiweis somehow accused Apolonija at their departure for the U.S.A. that she lured her whole family to that perilous journey. Despite that, he published her letter, markedly commenting that a woman wrote it. In her letter, Apolonija mentioned women’s thematic as she was enthusiastic about the status of women in America, where they were respected and every violence (of men) on women was punished.

The author analyses in detail Apolonija’s letter in comparison with letters of that time: the letter of the elder daughter of Janez Pogačnik (St. Joseph, April 17th 1857) and that of nephew Jernej Pirc (Crow Wing, October 22nd 1854) who left for America a year earlier. Both letters were published in Novice. Indirectly we know that there was a tight correspondence bond between the brother Franz Pierz and the sister Apolonija until Pierz's departure for America in 1835. The author also analyses the letter to his sister, which he wrote in Grand Portage at Lake Superior on October 10th 1838. It is preserved in transcription in Pierz’s collection at the Arhiv Slovenije (AS 791).

In the conclusion, the author contemplates on causes for a lesser response of Slovenes in regard of departing for Minnesota in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century. The economic situation of peasants was on Slovene territory poor as they were burdened with taxes, bad harvests and other natural disasters were taking turns, and consequently they were running out of money. Yet proper massive emigration of Slovenes to the U.S.A. occurred not until the end of the 19th century when there was no available land left; thus, people – of predominantly peasant origin – had to employ themselves in mines and factories. The reasons for a lesser leaving of Slovenes for the U.S.A. during the time of the missionary Franz Pierz are various. We must (probably) place among them the most fundamental, that is lack of money for the journey and for starting a new life in America. In accordance with the model and the practice that the migration idea first caught the most west European countries and then moved slowly towards east, having here in mind the development of traffic, education of people, their level of information, migration policies of the emigration states, the net of emigrant agencies etc., to psychological backgrounds with individuals. It seems paradoxical but higher education and level of information about the world were foundations for massive abandoning the homeland. That was at the turn of the 20th century higher than in the middle of the 19th century.

Marjan Drnovšek has a PhD from historical sciences and is an archivist, employed at the Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana. He is researching various aspects of migration movements within Slovenes. His latest work is a monograph: Franc Pirc (1785-1880). Sadjar na Kranjskem in misijonar v Ameriki / Franz Pierz (1785–1880). Fruit grower in Carniola and missionary in America. Naklo: Občina Naklo /The commune of Naklo/, 2003, pp. 96.

ABSTRACT
Few were Slovene immigrants in America who in the middle of the 19th century set up a farm in Minnesota, which in 1858 became part of the United States of America. In that period, people were immigrating mainly from the German Catholic provinces, for example from Bavaria, from the river Rhine Basin and from Westfalia. In the 60s, as well only a smaller number of Slovenes decided to immigrate to the countryside of Minnesota. They were settling particularly in the region of Stearns County, Minnesota where the Slovene missionary Franz Pierz/Franc Pirc (1785-1880) was active. Pirc was also an immigrant commissioner and an advocate of the idea that Minnesota should become the most Catholic American state (a monograph on Pirc was published in English: William P. Furlan, In Charity unfeigned. The Life of Father Francis Xavier Pierz. Diocese of St. Cloud, 1952). Consequently, he was inviting Catholics and entire families to establish in the new environment common settlements with Catholic churches and priests as a basis of new life in new world. Yet Slovenes did not respond to that invitation in large extent. Thus, Minnesota did not become a New Slovenia as some in the homeland wished (see: Slovene Catholic gazette Zgodnja danica, and Novice 1865). The Slovenes lived in the settlements of St. Joseph, St. Jacob, Kraintown (St. Anthony) and elsewhere.

In 1855, Apolonija sister of missionary Pirc, joined him with her whole family, that is the husband, four children and son-in-law of the eldest daughter. With the help of her brother, they gained 160 acres of land in St. Joseph, Minnesota, and were farming successfully in the following decades. Apolonija was the second woman (the first was the sister of Friderik Baraga Antonija Höffern in 1837) and the first mother who came in the 19th century from Slovenia to America. In that year, Franz Pierz published a book Die Indianer in Nord=Amerika, ihre Lebensweise, Sitten, Gebräuche u.s.w. nach zehnjärigem Aufenthalte und gesammelten Erfahrungen unter den vershiedenen Stämmen, St. Louis with a supplement Eine Kurze Beschreibung des Minnesota-Territoriums. The book was intended for the German Catholic immigrants in the U.S.A., and the short description of Minnesota to help people decide to settle in the then Territory of Minnesota. Pirc was inviting them through German newspapers, for example Der Wahrheitsfreund, Cincinnati, Ohio. In that period, he was not yet inviting Slovenes to America; he did so after the end of the American civil war (1865).

Exceptional is the significance of missionary letters and letters of rare laics who wrote their relatives and friends in the homeland. Not so few were entirely, abridged or just as summaries published by the then newspapers in the homeland, the most in Zgodnja danica and in Novice. Many letters were written in such a manner that they were in regard of content directly suggesting publication in a newspaper. Thus, many private letters gained public character. (Incidentally, the conference Reading the Emigrant Letter : Innovative approaches and interpretations, Carleton Centre for History of Migration, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, August 7-9, 2003, was dedicated to such issues.) The Catholic press readily published missionary and as well rare Slovene laic letters as they spoke of spreading and preserving Catholic religion not only among the natives but also among the immigrants from Europe. With their help, they were collecting contributions for the work of missionaries. We classify those early letters, among them Apolonija’s, among informative messages about possibilities for a new life in Minnesota, which were – in regard of personal experience – enthusiastic or full of disappointment, but far from stereotypic views in the sense that in America dollars were lying about on the ground. All agree there are plenty chances for success, but one must work hard for it.

Apolonija’s letter, which she herself wrote on November 7th 1855, and was published in Novice on January 9th 1856, is about two themes: the journey from Ljubljana over Vienna to Hamburg, from there by steamboat to Liverpool, and then by sailing ship together with 313 passengers to New York (a storm and the seasickness made strong impression on her), and about their beginnings of farming in St. Joseph. She was satisfied and invited to America all brave enough as there was plenty of land there. The editor of the newspaper Novice, Dr. Janez Bleiweis somehow accused Apolonija at their departure for the U.S.A. that she lured her whole family to that perilous journey. Despite that, he published her letter, markedly commenting that a woman wrote it. In her letter, Apolonija mentioned women’s thematic as she was enthusiastic about the status of women in America, where they were respected and every violence (of men) on women was punished.

The author analyses in detail Apolonija’s letter in comparison with letters of that time: the letter of the elder daughter of Janez Pogačnik (St. Joseph, April 17th 1857) and that of nephew Jernej Pirc (Crow Wing, October 22nd 1854) who left for America a year earlier. Both letters were published in Novice. Indirectly we know that there was a tight correspondence bond between the brother Franz Pierz and the sister Apolonija until Pierz's departure for America in 1835. The author also analyses the letter to his sister, which he wrote in Grand Portage at Lake Superior on October 10th 1838. It is preserved in transcription in Pierz’s collection at the Arhiv Slovenije (AS 791).

In the conclusion, the author contemplates on causes for a lesser response of Slovenes in regard of departing for Minnesota in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century. The economic situation of peasants was on Slovene territory poor as they were burdened with taxes, bad harvests and other natural disasters were taking turns, and consequently they were running out of money. Yet proper massive emigration of Slovenes to the U.S.A. occurred not until the end of the 19th century when there was no available land left; thus, people – of predominantly peasant origin – had to employ themselves in mines and factories. The reasons for a lesser leaving of Slovenes for the U.S.A. during the time of the missionary Franz Pierz are various. We must (probably) place among them the most fundamental, that is lack of money for the journey and for starting a new life in America. In accordance with the model and the practice that the migration idea first caught the most west European countries and then moved slowly towards east, having here in mind the development of traffic, education of people, their level of information, migration policies of the emigration states, the net of emigrant agencies etc., to psychological backgrounds with individuals. It seems paradoxical but higher education and level of information about the world were foundations for massive abandoning the homeland. That was at the turn of the 20th century higher than in the middle of the 19th century.

Marjan Drnovšek has a PhD from historical sciences and is an archivist, employed at the Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana. He is researching various aspects of migration movements within Slovenes. His latest work is a monograph: Franc Pirc (1785-1880). Sadjar na Kranjskem in misijonar v Ameriki / Franz Pierz (1785–1880). Fruit grower in Carniola and missionary in America. Naklo: Občina Naklo /The commune of Naklo/, 2003, pp. 96.

ABSTRACT
The article deals with the role of the Slovene missionary Francis Pierz in the establishment of the first Slovene settlements in the United States. While mainly promoting the German Catholic colonization of Stearns County in Minnesota, he also managed to attract several fellow countrymen to the area of his missionary activity. The article focuses on the establishment of the two Slovene settlements and parishes of St. Stephen and St. Anthony, respectively in Brockway and Krain townships – the latter was named so after the area of origin of the settlers, and it still retains this name.

Like the German Catholic community in Stearns County, the much smaller Slovene “island” within it as well shows an outstanding attachment to its ethnic roots and the Catholic religion, which is also related to their preservation of the rural way of life. However, it originally stems from the beginnings of their life in the wilderness, when they needed mutual collaboration and the contacts with the missionaries for their very survival. On the other hand, we can also suppose that they were somehow aware of their role in setting the bases of their ethnic community in the new world. The missionaries and the institutions of St. Cloud's diocese sure aided them in this regard.

The writings of the Slovene missionaries also provide the essential sources which enable us to follow the events that led to the establishment of the settlements of St.Stephen and St. Anthony, as well as their development in their early years.

Thus, by reading Pierz's letters in the Slovene religious newspaper Zgodnja danica (Early Morning Star) we can follow the emigration of a group of his fellow countrymen from their homeland up to Minnesota, where, however, they were misled, probably by land agents, and did not reach the missionary.

However, through the memories which have been preserved in their community we learn of their encounter with another renowned missionary, Joseph Buh. Through Buh's baptismal records and his letters to Zgodnja danica we then learn of the early development of their settlements and parishes, of which St. Stephen is regarded as the first Slovene ethnic parish in the United States.

Still another prominent person who decisively contributed to the establishment of St.Anthony's parish was Bernard Ločnikar, who joined the Benedictines of St.John's Abbey in Collegeville and later also became their abbot.

Though the paper does not propose to examine the further religious development of the two parishes, it stresses the growth of the Slovene settlement in St. Stephen up to the First World War, while on the contrary the Slovene population decreased in St. Anthony.

The conspicuous compactness of the Slovene settlement in St. Stephen, besides its size, certainly aided the preservation of its ethnic identity, though it was also fostered by the Church. However, the attachment to the ethnic roots was also sustained by the persistence of rural values, so that even Slovene farmers in St. Anthony managed to maintain ethnic traditions by living on their historic farms.

In honor of the Slovenes in St. Stephen and St. Anthony since 1982 both the St. Stephen church and rectory as memorial of the establishment of the Slovene settlement and the Anton Gogala farmstead in Krain township as a significant representative of a Slovene pioneer farmstead are included in the National Register of Historic Sites in the United States.

Majda Kodrič is historian and professor in Trieste, Italy.

ABSTRACT
The article deals with the role of the Slovene missionary Francis Pierz in the establishment of the first Slovene settlements in the United States. While mainly promoting the German Catholic colonization of Stearns County in Minnesota, he also managed to attract several fellow countrymen to the area of his missionary activity. The article focuses on the establishment of the two Slovene settlements and parishes of St. Stephen and St. Anthony, respectively in Brockway and Krain townships – the latter was named so after the area of origin of the settlers, and it still retains this name.

Like the German Catholic community in Stearns County, the much smaller Slovene “island” within it as well shows an outstanding attachment to its ethnic roots and the Catholic religion, which is also related to their preservation of the rural way of life. However, it originally stems from the beginnings of their life in the wilderness, when they needed mutual collaboration and the contacts with the missionaries for their very survival. On the other hand, we can also suppose that they were somehow aware of their role in setting the bases of their ethnic community in the new world. The missionaries and the institutions of St. Cloud's diocese sure aided them in this regard.

The writings of the Slovene missionaries also provide the essential sources which enable us to follow the events that led to the establishment of the settlements of St.Stephen and St. Anthony, as well as their development in their early years.

Thus, by reading Pierz's letters in the Slovene religious newspaper Zgodnja danica (Early Morning Star) we can follow the emigration of a group of his fellow countrymen from their homeland up to Minnesota, where, however, they were misled, probably by land agents, and did not reach the missionary.

However, through the memories which have been preserved in their community we learn of their encounter with another renowned missionary, Joseph Buh. Through Buh's baptismal records and his letters to Zgodnja danica we then learn of the early development of their settlements and parishes, of which St. Stephen is regarded as the first Slovene ethnic parish in the United States.

Still another prominent person who decisively contributed to the establishment of St.Anthony's parish was Bernard Ločnikar, who joined the Benedictines of St.John's Abbey in Collegeville and later also became their abbot.

Though the paper does not propose to examine the further religious development of the two parishes, it stresses the growth of the Slovene settlement in St. Stephen up to the First World War, while on the contrary the Slovene population decreased in St. Anthony.

The conspicuous compactness of the Slovene settlement in St. Stephen, besides its size, certainly aided the preservation of its ethnic identity, though it was also fostered by the Church. However, the attachment to the ethnic roots was also sustained by the persistence of rural values, so that even Slovene farmers in St. Anthony managed to maintain ethnic traditions by living on their historic farms.

In honor of the Slovenes in St. Stephen and St. Anthony since 1982 both the St. Stephen church and rectory as memorial of the establishment of the Slovene settlement and the Anton Gogala farmstead in Krain township as a significant representative of a Slovene pioneer farmstead are included in the National Register of Historic Sites in the United States.

Majda Kodrič is historian and professor in Trieste, Italy.