Christianity in the Works of Ivana Brlić Mažuranić

Čovjek je po svojoj naravi religiozno biće. Svoj doživljaj religioznosti on želi izraziti na različite načine. Bajka je također jedan od načina kako izraziti ono duboko religijsko i religiozno iskustvo. Ona može rabiti razne mitove, legende, vjerovanja naroda u kojemu niče. Svi su oni u službi umjetnosti, kulture i odgoja. I onoga religioznoga odgoja. Također i danas, u vrijeme interneta i svih drugih tehnika i tehničkih pomagala, bajka je neizostavno pomagalo za religiozni i moralni odgoj čovjeka. Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, genij bajke i pripovijesti, pokušala je preko te vrste poučiti, bilo svoju bilo drugu djecu, u vjeri i u dobru, u kršćanskoj vjeri koja je bila dio njena života i u kršćanskim idealima koji su u mnogočemu iskustvo svakog čovjeka. Svoju duboku vjeru, moralna i vjerska načela koja je slijedila u svome životu, prenijela je i u svoje bajke tako da one, osim umjetničke vrijednosti, imaju i velik značaj u odgojno-moralnom smislu. Cilj je ovim radom prikazati što je Ivana crpila iz kršćanstva, kako je to razumjela i pretočila u svoja djela.Ivana Brlić Mažuranić wrote in an authentic way about people in extreme situations, from evil to good, from hate to love, from poverty to richness. Through the stories she writes, she strives that these lost human creatures find their right way and learn the only truth – regarding the faith in their lives. Ivana held on strongly to faith and to God. In her works, primarily through her fairytales and legends, the motives are in an extraordinary way related to Christianity. The faith of the Catholic Church in her writings is so obvious, that it is legitimate to inquire why this issue was avoided in the presentation of her works, or in the presentation of her as a Christian faithful. Perhaps the reason lies in society’s turn towards the atheism, willing to expel God from literature, even from the one that speaks overtly about God? Certainly, such a great Christian author, the Croatian Andersen, deserves all the possible attention. With her fairytales and other works, Ivana proclaimed the message of the Gospel in a particular way. She incorporated it into her beloved popular traditions and mythology of Croatian people, through the beautiful and subtle vocabulary, through the rhythm of the story, in order that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3,17). The happy or positive outcome of her stories is not the consequence of the genre, but of the positive and optimistic message, which accompanies this type of literature especially in her times