Ljubica Avramović Luković
1858–1915
| Pseudonyms | Etincelle |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Stevan Luković |
| Date of birth | 1858 |
| Date of death | February 11, 1915 |
Personal situation
The daughter of Jeftimije Avramović, a philologist, professor, and honorary member of the Serbian Learned Society. Her brother was Sima Avramović, a politician and writer. She had two sisters – Milica and Olga. She was a student of the Higher School for Girls in Belgrade.
In 1877, she married Stevan Luković, an officer and honorary general of the Drina division area. They had no children.
In 1875, she became a member of the newly established Belgrade Women’s Society, which founded a hospital in the period 1876–1878, and Ljubica helped the Military Medical Corps, cooperated with the Red Cross, and participated in the magazine Domaćica (The Housewife).
At the beginning of the First World War, she burned the Society’s archive and moved to Niš. While being on one of her missions of delivering war relief from the Kolo’s (Circle’s) Serbian and foreign friends to Valjevo, she contracted typhus and soon died from it. On January 29, 1915, she wrote her last letter to her friend Delfa Ivanić and therein highlighted the following: “We spent 12 days on our journey, we went through much trouble, but I am glad we went there and at least to a small extent helped to relieve that great misery of ours. We did our duty to the best of our abilities!”
She died on February 11, 1915, in Niš. On February 22, 1915, she was posthumously awarded the “Florence Nightingale” medal at a Kolo Srpskih sestara (Circle of Serbian Sisters) solemn academy.
| Place of birth | Pančevo |
|---|---|
| Place(s) of residence | Serbia |
| Place of death | Niš |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| First language(s) | Serbian |
| Marital status | Married |
| Number of children | 0 |
| Education | School education |
Professional situation
A teacher, translator, and nurse.
The Vice-President and Controller of the Patriotic-Humanitarian Society “Kneginja Ljubica”, founded in 1899.
She published her works in the magazines Domaćica (The Housewife) and Bosanska vila (The Bosnian Fairy), chiefly under the pseudonym Etincelle.
In 1905, she became the President of the Circle of Serbian Sisters (she will remain in this position until 1915) and in 1906 participated in the idea of initiating the almanac Vardar (The Vardar). Her humanitarian and patriotic work consisted of collecting funds for the Serbs in Macedonia, supporting schools and centers of spirituality, and establishing connections with Serbian cultural societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Dalmatia.
With Delfa Ivanić, she managed to win the support of the Head of the Military Medical Corps at the Ministry of Defence for the establishment of the Fourth Reserve Hospital in Vračar, where she would nurse the wounded in the First Balkan War, while simultaneously founding an ever-increasing number of shelters with warm food for soldiers along the main railway lines.
Sources: Tatjana Loš, "Život Ljubice Luković protkan humanošću i rodoljubljem", feljton „Znamenite Srpkinje“ u dodatku Večernjih Novosti, 23.6.2015, str. 20.
Mandić V. Heroine sa svetskim odličjem: kazivanja o našim dobitnicama medalje ”Florens Najtingejl”. Prvo izdanje. Niš: Prosveta. 1998.
Maja Savić Sekulić, "Od beogradske gospođice do (ne)zaboravljenog junaka – Ljubica Luković", Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Medicinski fakultet, februar 2013, <https://web.archive.org/web/20160821231756/http://www.rastko.rs/rastko/delo/15155>
Translated by Goran Petrović
| Profession(s) and other activities | humanitarian worker, translator from French, nurse, and teacher/governess |
|---|---|
| Language(s) in which she wrote | Serbian |
| Memberships | Of editorial boards and Other |
Works by this author
Translations
Reception
Reception after death
- Ljubica Luković (1925)
- Odlikovanje pok. Ljubice Luković (1925)
Authors read by this author
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