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Jelena Brajša
Jelena Brajša
Born	18 August 1935; Zagreb
Died	5 November 2021
Burial place	Mirogoj
Nationality	Croat
Education	Seminar für kirchliche Frauenberufe (Vienna)
Occupation(s)	humanitarian, social worker
Organization	Croatian Caritas
Children	7 (4 adopted)
Awards	City of Zagreb Award (1993)

Jelena (Jelka) Brajša (18 August 1935 – 5 November 2021) was a Croatian humanitarian^[1] and social worker, long-term president of the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb (1966–2005).^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] She helped in establishment of several reception centers and homes for abandoned children, handicapped, old and infirm.^[1] She has been working on collecting aid for war victims during the Croatian War of Independence.^[1]^[4] She was known as "The Angel of Zagreb"^[5] and "Croatian Mother Teresa".^[6]

Early life and education

She was born in Zagreb in 1935 as a youngest, thirteenth child in the Catholic family.^[5] Her father was jurist.^[5] She attended elementary and middle school in Zagreb.^[2] With the establishment of the communist Yugoslavia, her family was labeled as a "class enemy" and she was prevented from studying.^[5] In 1958 she went to Vienna, where she studied social work and religious pedagogy at the Seminar für kirchliche Frauenberufe, with the scholarship granted to her by the cardinal Franz König.^[5]^[6] She further educated in Paris and Lourdes.^[1]^[2]

Humanitarian work

Cardinal Franjo Šeper appointed her in 1966 as a director of the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb.^[2]^[3] She suffered several public attacks for her caritative work.^[5] The communist authorities labeled her activities as "illegal work".^[6] Although Caritas was not recognized by the Yugoslav authorities, social workers and police officers referred mothers with children to Brajša and Caritas' workers or brought them abandoned children.^[7]^[8]

Under her organization, Caritas had about 260 employees, 33 houses and institutions where about 400 children and 200 adults are housed.^[9] She worked in Caritas for 39.5 years.^[7] She was also long-term president of the Humanitarian Network of Croatia (HMH).^[9]

She was editor-in-chief of the Betanija ("Bethany") magazine (hr), Archdiocese of Zagreb's magazine for patients. Besides native Croatian, she also spoke German and French language.^[7]

Abandoned children

From July 6, 1969, when she took care of the first abandoned child, until her death in 2021, Zagreb's Caritas took care of more than 5,000 abandoned children.^[10] After Glas Koncila published about the case of the first received child, from July to December 1969 Zagreb's Caritas received 70 unwanted or abandoned children.^[7] From 1969 to 1990, Brajša and her co-workers from Caritas housed abandoned newborns at the Archbishop's House at Kaptol, Zagreb.^[7] Carmelite nuns from Vrhovec also took care of some infants.^[7]^[8] Daughters of Divine Charity also took care of the children and their education.^[8] The first house for around twenty abandoned children was opened in Vugrovec.^[7] In 1983, the centre for occupational therapy and rehabilitation "St. Vincent de Paul" was opened in Oborovo.^[8] In 1991, abandoned newborn and infants were relocated from Kaptol to a newly opened house in Savica-Šanci.^[8] In 1994, with the financial aid of Austrian Caritas and foreign donors,^[7] Caritas home for children victims of war was opened in Brezovica.^[8]

Personal life

She adopted four children who bear her family name and three more children whom she took in but who she did not officially adopt.^[9]

The oldest adopted child is Tomislav Brajša,^[11] musician and singer.^[9] He was born in a hospital in Pula, where his biological mother left him. Although he was not born blind, due to the negligence of the doctors he went blind in the incubator.^[7]

Her youngest adopted son Tomi Brajša, born without both legs,^[7] is a paraswimmer and he competed for Croatia at the 2021 Summer Paralympics.^[12]

In February 2004, she was operated on for a brain tumor.^[7]

Awards

She received several awards for her work:^[9]

Albert Schweitzer Medal (1992)
City of Zagreb Award (1993)
"Dr Kurt Waldheim" Award (1993)
Person of the dialogue-Person of the year by Croatian Academic Association (1998)
Humanist of the world (2000)^[13]
Medal with the image of the Mother of God of the Stone Gate (2008)^[8]

Remembrance

Documentary "Jelena Brajsa, der Engel von Zagreb" ("Jelena Brajša, the Angel of Zagreb") by Robert Neumüller for ORF.^[5]

Bibliography

Journals

Brajša, Jelena (1972). "Karitas u službi života" [Caritas in the service of life]. Obnovljeni Život (in Croatian). 27 (6): 628–635. (Available in Croatian Web Archive)
Brajša, Jelena (1979). "Djeca bez roditelja i roditelji bez djece" [Children without parents and parents without children]. Obnovljeni Život (in Croatian). 34 (6): 558–562. (Available in Croatian Web Archive)
Brajša, Jelena (1993). "Caritas Zagrebačke nabiskupije" [Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb]. Bogoslovska smotra (in Croatian). 63 (3–4): 432–435. (Available in Croatian Web Archive)

Conference proceedings

"Djelotvorna ljubav Caritasa i Crkve prema žrtvama rata od 1991. do danas" ("The effective love of Caritas and the Church towards the victims of war from 1991 until today") in: Šeparović, Zvonimir, ed. (1998). Hrvatski žrtvoslov : zbornik radova Prvog hrvatskog žrtvoslovnog kongresa, Zagreb, 19. do 21. lipnja 1998 (in Croatian). Zagreb: Hrvatsko žrtvoslovno društvo. pp. 441–448. ISBN 9539734010.
"Osnutak Caritasa Zagrebačke nadbiskupije" ("Foundation of Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb"), in: Tanjić, Željko, ed. (2003). Veritatem facientes in caritate: zbornik radova Međunarodnoga simpozija o kardinalu Franji Šeperu povodom 20. obljetnice smrti (in Croatian). Zagreb: Glas Koncila; Kršćanska sadašnjost. ISBN 9536258862.
"Solidarnost sa siromasima" ("Solidarity with the poor"), in: Cvek, Antun; Cvitanović, Marija, eds. (2005). Biskup Josip Lang - prijatelj siromaha : zbornik sa Simpozija održanoga 6. studenoga 2004. u Zagrebu, prigodom 80. godišnjice smrti biskupa Josipa Langa (in Croatian). Zagreb: Zaklada biskup Josip Lang. pp. 39–43. ISBN 953998324X.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Brajša, Jelena". Croatian Encyclopedia (in Croatian). Zagreb: Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography. 2013–2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "IN MEMORIAM - Gđa Jelena Brajša". czn.hr (in Croatian). Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb. 6 November 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b Vujić, Antun (1996). Hrvatski leksikon [Croatian Lexicon] (in Croatian). Vol. I. Zagreb: Naklada Leksikon. pp. 146–147.
^ ^a ^b "Brajša, Jelena". Proleksis Encyclopedia (in Croatian). 18 April 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Jelena Brajsa und Kardinal König: Der Engel von Zagreb und sein Förderer". ots.at (in German). OTS. 2 August 2004. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Despot, Zvonimir; Schödl, Ingeborg (18 May 2004). "Friede entsteht im Herzen". Kirchen Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 17 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Pavičić, Darko (27 November 2011). "Jelena Brajša: Moja istina o Brezovici, Caritasu i ljubavi prema odbačenoj djeci". Večernji list (in Croatian). Republished by bitno.net on 30 November 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Stanić, Branimir (8 November 2021). "IZ POSLJEDNJEGA VEĆEGA RAZGOVORA POKOJNE UMIROVLJENE RAVNATELJICE CARITASA ZAGREBAČKE NADBISKUPIJE JELENE BRAJŠE ZA GLAS KONCILA »Majke su nama ostavljale djecu jer su znale da to činimo u Božje ime«". Glas Koncila (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 22 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Protiv Jelene Brajše nemoćan i Bozanić". Večernji list (in Croatian). 20 June 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
^ Čutura, Vlado (14 November 2021). "Caritas pod vodstvom Jelene Brajše zbrinuo je više od 5000 djece" [Caritas under the leadership of Jelena Brajša took care of more than 5,000 children]. Glas Koncila (in Croatian). Vol. 60, no. 2473. p. 5. ISSN 0436-0311.
^ Brajša 1972, p. 635.
^ "Tomi Brajša: "Najlakše je odmah odustati kod prve prepreke, ali tako se nikada ne dolazi do cilja."". hpo.hr (in Croatian). Croatian Paralympic Committee. 24 July 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
^ Padan, Martina (24 January 2003). "U Hrvatskoj je previše siromašnih". Hrvatsko slovo (in Croatian). Retrieved 17 January 2024. Archived by the Croatian Web Archive (HAW).