History

The village was first mentioned in 1300[2] or 1308. From the village's establishment, villagers
have followed the Greek Catholic faith; in 1700 there were 348 Greek Catholics out of 351
people living in the village. It is located in the Slovak Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of
Prešov. Two natives of the village, brothers Šimon Štefan and Michal Manuel Olšavský, made
their hometown famous as bishops of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo in the
eighteenth century. In the late nineteenth century, many villagers emigrated to the United
States.[1]

In 1944, the village was the site of a mass rescue of some 50 refugees, including 35 Jews who
escaped the Holocaust in Slovakia, due to the exhortations of local Slovak Catholic priest Michal
Mašlej, who was held in high esteem by the farmers. Preaching that it was their Christian duty to
help refugees, Mašlej arranged for persecuted families to hide with various parishioners, and hid
the Hartmann family in his personal residence. When German troops had to be quartered in the
village, he made sure that they were not placed with any of the families involved in the rescue
effort.[3][4] Mašlej's efforts were supported by his Bishop, Pavel Peter Gojdič. When Mašlej was
concerned about the danger to his congregants, Gojdič told him: "The support to the persecuted
results of charity and it is your duty according to your capacity to help and to provide shelter to
the threatened by deportation".[5] Researcher Nina Paulovičová compared Oľšavica to
Nieuwlande and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon—other villages where the population banded together
to hide Jews—adding that it was "remarkable" that no one informed on the fugitives and none of
them were arrested.[4] Mašlej was recognized as Righteous among the Nations by the Israeli
official Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, in 1997.[3]

Geography

The Greek Catholic church in Oľšavica

Oľšavica lies at an altitude of 800 metres (2,600 ft)[1] and covers an area of 17.6 square
kilometres (6.8 sq mi).[6] Geographically, it is dominated by the nearby Spišská hill, at 1,065
metres (3,494 ft). It is bordered by Brutovce to the east, Tichý Potok to the north, Nižné Repaše
to the west, Pavľany to the south, and Poproč to the southeast.[1] Its population has decreased
from 808 in 1910 to 291 on the 2011 census.[7]

Landmarks and tourist attraction

The church in the village was built in 1861 and is consecrated to Our Lady of Protection.[1]

References
1.

 Šturák, Peter. Ľudové zvyky a obyčaje pri slávení cirkevných sviatkov v gréckokatolíckych
farnostiach v Levočských vrchoch na pozadíich histórie (PDF). Znak, Symbol a Rituál V
Tradíciách a Prejavoch Ľudovej Zbožnosti. Prešovská univerzita v Prešove, Gréckokatolícka
teologická fakulta. pp. 40–44. ISBN 978-80-555-0774-3.
  Vlastivedný slovník obcí na Slovensku (in Slovak). Slovak Academy of Sciences, Veda. 1977.
  "Michal Mašlej". The Righteous Among the Nations Database. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 10
November 2019.
  Paulovičová, Nina (2012). Rescue of Jews in the Slovak State (1939–1945) (PhD thesis).
Edmonton: University of Alberta. p. 301. doi:10.7939/R33H33.
  Borza, Peter (28 December 2012). "Activities of Bishop Paul Peter Gojdic in favour of Jews
in Slovakia during the Holocaust" (PDF). E-Theologos. Theological revue of Greek Catholic
Theological Faculty. 3 (2): 158–165. doi:10.2478/v10154-012-0013-x.
  "Registre obnovenej evidencie pozemkov, Prešovský kraj" (PDF). Úrad geodézie,
kartografie a katastra Slovenskej republiky [sk]. p. 3. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
 Kyšela, Štefan (2015). "The Population Development in the Levoča Mountains (Slovakia)"
(PDF). Acta facultatis studiorum humanitatis et naturae. 27 (1): 117. ISSN 1336-6157.