Frantsysk Skoryna

Frantsysk Skoryna 1517 (ru.wikipedia.org/)

Frantsysk Skoryna is my hero. I think this name is known not only in the country where I live but all over the world. He was the greatest Belarusian humanist of the 16th century. His name stands next to the names of Michail Lomonosov, Alexander Pushkin, Taras Shevchenko and other famous figures of Slavic culture.

I appreciate him for his great talent and the profound impact he had on the cultural development of Belarus. He was a doctor of medicine, a writer, a translator, an artist, and an enlightener. He also had a good knowledge of law, botany, history and astronomy. Belarusian printing owes its beginnings to Dr. Frantsysk Skoryna. He was the first man who translated the Bible into the old Belarusian language. He wrote poems in Belarusian. So we can say that he was a true Renaissance man — his intellectual interests embraced theology, literature, linguistics, poetry, art, law, medicine, botany, and printing.

We know very little about him. He was born between 1485 and 1490 in Polatsk in the family of a wealthy merchant, Luka Skaryna, who traded with Bohemia and the Polish and German lands. From his parents, the son inherited love for his native Polatsk. Frantsysk received his primary education in the parental home, where he learned to read the Psalter and write in Cyrillic characters. He became a student of Cracow University when he was 14. After two years of study he got his diploma. He received his degree in liberal arts, and later, at the University of Padua, he received his degree in medicine. He travelled much about Europe. He could speak many foreign languages. I think it's fascinating when people can speak many foreign languages.

The first Bible in Belarusian (ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ñêîðèíà,_Ôðàíöèñê )

He was the first printer of Belarus. From 1525 Skoryna printed books in Vilnia - the capital of Lithuania. All his books were in Belarusian and people in other countries learnt about the Belarusian language, education and culture. The books were important for the progress of Belarusian literature and writing.

I admire Frantsysk Skoryna for his true love for his Motherland and its people. He wrote and spoke much about it. He said that from their first days animals find their ways to holes, birds fly in the air and know their way to their nests, fishes swim in the sea and in the river but know their pools, bees defend their hives, so people must have a great love for their homes where they were born.