Life and life's work

JOHN AMOS COMENIUS (1592 - 1670)

Czech theologian, philosopher, writer, educationalist and the last bishop of the Unity of Brethren.

He was born in the Uherský Brod region, the exact place of birth still being subject to comeniological research.

Having studied at the Fraternal school in Přerov and German evangelical schools he was ordained a priest in 1616. In the year 1618 he took over conduct of the Fraternal congregation in Fulnek. He was there when the Czech Estates Uprising was defeated. After the Battle of the White Mountain, being a Fraternal priest, he had to go into hiding. At the same time he was affected also by a personal disaster as his wife and two children died. During this hard time, by the end of the year 1623, he wrote "The Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart", an allegorical piece of social criticism.

In 1628 he finally left the country to go into exile in Polish Leszno. Apart from a few breaks he stayed there until 1656 as a teacher and later rector of the Brethren Gymnasium, secretary and keeper of the records, and from 1648 as a Unity of Brethren bishop.

He wrote a number of educational works. In his "Didaktika magna” he worked out a comprehensive system of education. He also published his first version of the textbook of Latin there, the ”Janua linguarum reserata” (The Doorway to Languages Is Open), a work which, to his surprise, became popular worldwide.
It was there where he started thinking of his life’s project: the unification of all human knowledge and the creation of ”pansofia” as a basis for the reformation of the life of the whole of human society. At the same time, as a recognized scholar, he became one of the political spokesmen of the post White Mountain exiles. After his stay in England (1641 - 42) he tried, in the then Swedish Elblag, to make protestant Europe intervene in favour of the Czech reformation (1642 - 48). The Peace of Westphalia (1648) brought an end to these hopes. This together with the death of his second wife created strong feelings of disillusion and despair in Comenius which he expressed in his work "The Testament of the Dying Mother, the Unity of Brethren". In 1650, having been invited by the Rákoczi Transylvania princes, he left for Sarospatak, where he tried to put his school reform programme into practice by establishing the first ”pansofic” school. During his four year stay he also wrote a few more educational works and political tracts ("Methodus linguarum novissima" – The Latest Methodology for Languages, " Orbis sensualium pictus" – The World in Pictures, "Schola ludus"- School through Play; "Gentis felicitas" – Happiness of the Nation,"Sermo secretus Nathanis ad Davidem" – Nathan’s Secret Speech to David).

After Leszno was burnt down in April 1656, when he again lost his whole library, most of his manuscripts (including the great dictionary of the Czech language and the manuscript of the "De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica" – The General Deliberation on the Remedy of Human Matters) and also his property, he found refuge in Amsterdam.

There Comenius’s scientific and literary work reached its culmination. He published practically 62 books. The most significant result of these prolific years is the seven volume "De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica" (The General Deliberation on the Remedy of Human Matters) dealing with the concept of the reform of human society. He also published the prophetic texts (revelations) of Kryštof Kotter, Mikuláš Drabík and Kristina Poniatowska ("Lux in tenebris" – Light in the Darkness, "Lux e tenebris" – Light from the Darkness), whose purpose was not only religious but especially political and psychological. This part of the Comeniological research is far from having been concluded. As a result of his life work Comenius rightly belongs amongst the greatest personalities in the Czech history.

He died in Amsterdam and is buried in Naarden, Holland.