FORMING OF THE MEMORY OF ANDREJ HLINKA IN THE CATHOLIC ENVIRONMENT UP TO 1938

The anchoring of Andrej Hlinka in the consciousness of the Slovak society went through a number of changes. In the period of the existence of Austro-Hungary, the time of increasing Magyarization, Hlinka, as a result of the tragedy in Černova, he became a symbol of the struggle of the Slovaks for national freedom. Hlinka gained the aureole of a martyr fighting for the right of the Slovak nation for its separate existence. Aft er the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic, Hlinka became the leader and Father of the Slovak nation, fighting for a greater freedom of the Slovak nation, this time in the form of autonomy within the new state. In the 1930s it was primarily his followers who nurtured the cult of Hlinka’s person, which flourished at the time of his seventieth birthday celebrations. Hlinka was at the time perceived as the greatest living Slovak and the man who had the greatest merit in reforming the Slovaks into a modern nation.