Matija Škerbec

Matija Škerbec (November 5, 1886 – October 17, 1963), was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest, political figure, and writer.

Life Matija Škerbec was born in the village of Podcerkev on November 5, 1886 to the tenant farmers Frančiška (née Palčič) and Matija Škerbec.

He attended high school in Ljubljana from 1900 to 1908, and then studied theology in Ljubljana, graduating in 1912.

Škerbec was ordained on July 15, 1912. He first served at the seminary, and then as a curate in Škocjan from 1913 to 1916. He was a vicar at the Ljubljana Cathedral from 1916 to 1922. He served as the parish priest in Tržič from 1922 to 1928. In 1928 he was appointed diocesan spiritual advisor by Bishop Anton Bonaventura Jeglič. He then served as the parish priest in Kranj from 1928 to 1936, where he had the parish church renovated and a new altar installed in 1934.

He was a member of the Slovene People's Party, in which he was engaged with labor and social issues, closely associating with Marko Natlačen and Anton Korošec. In 1932 he was arrested and then imprisoned in 1933 for a year for participating in the anti-regime incident known as the Šenčur Events on May 22, 1932.

He started working for the Caritas charity in Ljubljana in 1942, which not only aided refugees, but also helped finance the anti-communist MVAC. There his writings focused on wartime and postwar atrocities. These publications detailed not only large-scale events, such as the Kucja Valley massacre, Kočevski Rog massacre, and Bleiburg death marches, but also more local events such as the extrajudicial killings at Babna Gora, Brezje pri Dobrovi, and Žažar. He was tried in absentia by the communist regime and sentenced to death. and he was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland.