Mátyás Godina
Mátyás Godina ( Prekmurian: Mátjaš Godina (ar. 1768 – January 1, 1835) Slovene Lutheran

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

 pastor, writer and teacher in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

.

Born in Lemerje

Lemerje

Lemerje is a village in the Puconci Municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.There are two chapels in the settlement. The Evangelical chapel, built in the Neogothic style in 1925 is on the north side of the main road...

, his family was of minor nobility. He went to school in Surd

Surd

Surd may be:* A voiceless consonant* An Nth root, any mathematical expression such as a square root, cube root or higher root* Surd, Hungary, a village in Zala county, Hungary...

 in Somogy county, where he lived and worked with two Slovene littérateurs István Küzmics

István Küzmics

István Küzmics also known in Slovenian as Štefan or Števan Küzmič was the most important Lutheran writer of the Slovenes in Hungary....

 and Mihály Bakos

Mihály Bakos

Mihály Bakos, also known in Slovene as Miháo Bakoš or Mihael Bakoš, was a Hungarian Slovene Lutheran priest, author, and educator....

. He graduated from the Lutheran Lyceum of Sopron

Sopron

In 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...

 and returned to his home region Tótság (Prekmurje

Prekmurje

Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

) as a consecrated priest.

Between 1793-1799 he worked as teacher and after the death of priest István Szmodis

István Szmodis

István Szmodis was a Slovene Lutheran priest and writer.He was born in Liszó, Somogy . His parents was migrate from the Slovene Circumscription . Worked as a teacher in Nemescsó. His consecreation for the chaplaincy was March 24, 1787 in Puconci and worked by 1792 in Hodoš.On July 25, 1792, he...

, Godina became the pastor in 1821. From 1821 was priest and a teacher in Gornji Petrovci

Gornji Petrovci

Gornji Petrovci is a town and a municipality in Slovenia. The municipality includes 14 villages, represented in the municipal coat of arms by fourteen simplified blue houses. The shield also includes a heraldic otter holding a golden fish...

 until his death.

Godina wrote church hymns, sermons and school-curriculums in the Prekmurian language.

Source

• Evangeličanska cerkvena občina Bodonci
• Vili Kerčmar: Evangeličanska cerkev na Slovenskem, Murska Sobota
  Murska Sobota
  Murska Sobota is a city in northeastern Slovenia. It is located in the eponymous municipality near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje and is the regional capital.-Name:...
  
   1995.