Ivan Ratkaj, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetIvan Ratkaj
Croatian Jesuit missionary and explorer
Date of Birth: 22-May-1647
Place of Birth: Ptuj, Podravska statistical region, Slovenia
Date of Death: 26-Dec-1683
Profession: explorer
Zodiac Sign: Gemini 
About Ivan Ratkaj
- Ivan Ratkaj (22 May 1647 – 26 December 1683), also Ivan Rattkay, was a Jesuit missionary, explorer and cartographer.
- He wrote the first detailed description of the Tarahumara, a Native Mexican people. Ratkaj was born in Ptuj (Duchy of Styria, now northeastern Slovenia) to the Ratkaj noble family, barons of Veliki Tabor.
- After graduating from the Gymnasium, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1664.
- There he studied philosophy and theology.
- When he graduated, his superiors wanted him to teach, but they eventually granted his wish and sent him to be a missionary in Mexico in 1680. Ratkaj arrived at Veracruz in September 1680.
- In his reports, written in the form of a diary, he described his sea voyage to Mexico, the land route to the native province of Tarahumara in the north of Mexico and the customs and life of the Tarahumara people.
- He also drew a map of the region with missions and Spanish forts.
- Ratkaj provided the first ethnographic and geographic presentation of the Tarahumara.
- He learned the native language in a month and moved to Tutuaca, a mission in a poor mountainous area.
- His reports betray an open curiosity: he noted all kinds of details, not only of nature, but also of the natives and their life.
- He mostly tries to show the Tarahumara in an objective light.
- He presents the Tarahumara as a "mild and civilized" people as opposed to some neighboring tribes.
- But they are "fiercely addicted to magic" like other tribes.
- He describes his role as spreading God's name among the pagans.
- He also urged them to abstain from drinking and dissolution. He died suddenly in Carichic, aged only 36.
- According to some sources, the Indians may have been given him poisoned water to drink, but his contemporaries do not confirm this.
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