Podbrežani nekoč

Franc Pirc (1785 - 1888)
fruit grower in Carniola and missionary in America

Franc Pirc served as priest in Podbrezje from 1830 to 1835. In this brief period he left a permanent mark on the village thanks to his agricultural and other activities. He founded a tree nursery, encouraged the farmers to grow fruit and rebuilt the presbytery. He succeeded in introducing noble fruit varieties to the farmers’ orchards. For several decades the Podbrezje nursery supplied grafts to various nurseries in Carniola, Carinthia and Görz. Pirc was also the author of several books on fruit growing, and he even wrote the second part of his Carniolan Gardener in Podbrezje.

In 1835, at the request of Friderik Baraga, he set off for North America as a missionary. He worked in the area of the Great Lakes and from 1852 in the state of Minnesota. Besides giving them religious instruction, he also tried to civilise the Native Americans by teaching them about agriculture and fruit growing. He missionaried among the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and was beloved of them so much that they gave him the nick name Minodee, which means »good soul«. He established missionary stations and built churches.  He tried to improve the Indian religious education, their general behaviour and their knowledge about farming and fruit growing. He managed to encourage many German immigrants to make »the wild west« their new home. Also some Slovene families came to Minnesota with his invitation looking for their new land of promissed milk and honey.

During his entire stay in America he was in contact with the people from Podbrezje. Pierz wrote also the poems about them. They stayed in touch by sending letters, seeds, and other supplies for his agriculture activities in America.

He returned home in 1873 and died in Ljubljana in 1880 at the age of ninety-four.

The town of Pierz in Minnesota is named after Franc Pirc. There is also a high school named after him, and a number of monuments have been erected to him.

In 2003 the people of Podbrezje unveiled a monument to him next to the presbytery. The monument features a dove and an apple, symbolising his work in his homeland and in America.

Author: Jožef Perne