Sveti Gregor, pogosto zapisano okrajšano kot Sv. Gregor, je gručasto naselje in krajevna skupnost v Občini Ribnica.
Predstavlja središče Slemen na jugu Velikolaščanske pokrajine. Stoji na razglednem vrhu, kjer je razvodje med ponikalnicama Rašico in Bistrico. K naselju spadajo tudi osamljene hiše »Ograja«, »Podlipa« in »Stari Malin« v gozdnati grapi Žegnanega studenca, kjer je vodno zajetje.
V središču vasi, med gasilskim domom in župnijsko cerkvijo svetega Gregorja Velikega, stoji stavba, v kateri je tudi podružnična šola. Na pročelju te zgradbe (N 45.784477, E 014.641198) se nahaja spominska plošča, posvečena Janezu Evangelistu Kreku, ki se je rodil v tej vasi.
Janez Evangelist Krek, slovenski politik, sociolog, pisatelj, teolog, publicist in časnikar, *27. november 1865, Sveti Gregor, † 8. oktober 1917, Šentjanž pri Sevnici.
Krek je leta 1884 v Ljubljani maturiral na Prvi državni gimnaziji. Po maturi je vstopil v ljubljansko bogoslovje. Leta 1888 je bil posvečen v duhovnika. Po posvetitvi ga je ljubljanski škof Jakob Missia poslal na višji teološki študij na Dunaj. Tu se je temeljito seznanil z mladim krščanskosocialnim gibanjem in se hkrati še izpopolnjeval v znanju tujih jezikov. Leta 1892 je končal študij z doktorsko tezo De spiritu et charactere s. Pauli apostoli. Po končanem študiju je za kratek čas opravljal službo kaplana v Ribnici, že avgusta istega leta pa je postal stolni vikar v Ljubljani in od 1892 poučeval filozofijo kot prosti docent na ljubljanskem bogoslovju. Leta 1895 je tam zasedel novo ustanovljeno stolico za fundamentalno teologijo in tomistično filozofijo, katero je zasedal vse do upokojitve leta 1916.
Za državnozborskega poslanca je bil prvič izvoljen 1897, vendar ga delo v dunajskem parlamentu ni zadovoljilo, zato je oktobra 1900 odklonil ponovno kanditaturo, saj je menil, da je delo v domovini bolj potrebno. Leta 1901 je bil izvoljen v kranjski deželni zbor, katerega član je ostal po ponovnih izvolitvah 1908 in 1913 vse do smrti.
Krek je bil nadarjen za pisanje in za znanstveno delo, da bi bil lahko pridobil ugledno mesto v slovenskem literarnem in znanstvem delu. Toda takšno kabinetno delo ni prijalo njegovi naravi. Bil je profesor v ljubljanskem bogoslovju in to dober profesor kakor so priznali vsi njegovi učenci. Pisal je razlago svetega pisma (znane zgodbe sv. pisma, ki jih je za Mohorjevo družbo začel pisati Frančišek Lampe).
Napisal je okoli 6.000 časopisnih člankov, knjigo Črne bukve kmečkega stanu (1895) in okoli 600 strani obsegajoče delo Socializem (1901). Toda Kreku ni šlo za to, da množi število slovenskih knjig in prosvetnih brošur, marveč, da pove svojo misel o perečih nravnih, družbenih in narodnih vprašanjih ter pokaže pot k izboljšanju. Bil je naravnost genij neposrednega dejanja in vplivanja.
Vir: sl.wikipedia.org
Sveti Gregor is a village in the hills south of Velike Lašče. It belongs to the Municipality of Ribnica and is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola in southeastern Slovenia.
The parish church in the settlement, from which the village also gets its name, is dedicated to Saint Gregory and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ljubljana. It was built in 1826 on the site of an earlier church.
Janez Evangelist Krek was born in the village. There's a commemorative plaque in his memory, on the facade of a school building that stands between the fire department and the church (N 45.784477, E 014.641198).
Janez Evangelist Krek (27. November 1865 – 8 October 1917) was a Slovene Christian Socialist politician, priest, journalist, and author.
He was born in a peasant family in the village of Sveti Gregor (now in the Municipality of Ribnica in Lower Carniola), in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father died when he was a child. After finishing the state gymnasium in Ljubljana in 1884, he entered the Roman Catholic seminary. He was consecrated priest in 1888, and sent to the theological faculty in Vienna by the bishop Jakob Missia. There, he became acquainted with the new Austrian Christian Social movement of the charismatic politician Karl Lueger. Krek graduated in 1892, and was appointed vicar in the Ljubljana Cathedral. From 1985, he taught philosophy at the Catholic seminary.
He soon became involved in politics within the conservative Slovene People's Party. In 1897, he was elected representative to the Austrian Parliament. In 1900, he decided not to run for a second turn. In 1901, he was elected representative in the Provincial Diet of Carniola.
Already in his early Viennese years, Krek had published critical articles against liberalism. Influenced by the ultra-conservative thought of the Roman Catholic bishop of Krk Anton Mahnič, and by the encyclic Rerum novarum, he attacked the liberal economic system as being anti-social and anti-democratic. Between 1898 and 1907, Krek organized several peasant and worker's co-operatives, and transformed the Slovene People's Party from a conservative clerical party into a mass political movement propagating social emancipation on the basis of Catholic political ideology. As the result such mobilization, the People's Party won by landslide the first elections by general suffrage in Austria in 1907, gaining 20 of the 24 Slovene seats in the Austrian Parliament. Krek was among those elected.
In the parliament, Krek proved to be a powerful orator. He proposed several measures for social welfare, but was frequently blocked by the conservative leadership of his own party, led by the powerful Ivan Šušteršič. In 1909, Krek founded the Yugoslav Labor Association (Jugoslovanska strokovna zveza), which would become and remain the biggest trade union in the Slovene Lands until its dissolution in 1941.
Already in the late 1890s, Krek convinced the Slovene People's Party to seek a close alliance with Ante Starčević's Croatian Party of Rights. Krek's aim was to establish a unified state of South Slavs within Austria-Hungary on the basis of the tradition of Croatian historical rights. Krek was a convinced supporter of the idea of the unity of South Slav peoples, and many later commentators, including the historian Lojze Ude and Communist politician Boris Kidrič, reproached him with "Slavic romanticism" and "Yugoslav nationalism".
In 1917, Krek became the proposer and leader of the so-called May declaration (Slovene: Majniška deklaracija), which proposed the creation of a state of South Slavs under Habsburg rule. The declaration developed in a mass movement in the Slovene Lands, and Krek traveled extensively to Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to popularize the movement there, too. He died of exhaustion when returning from one of his travels. His ideals were realized only after his death and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, first with the creation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
He was buried in the Žale cemetery in Ljubljana.
Source: en.wikipedia.org