Nikola Tesla's Mother Georgina-Djuka Tesla (1822 - 1892)

The mother's loss grips one's head more powerfully than

any other sad experience in life. -Nikola Tesla, 1924

In my library, amongst the myriad books and papers about

Nikola Tesla, beginning with those written nearly a century

ago, and including the web entries created in our own day,

there is a veritable sea of information, and quite a bit of

disinformation, about the man who "invented the 20th century."

Tesla had been declared, variously, an Austrian, a Hungarian,

an East European, American, Yugoslav, Croat, occasionally even

a Serb - which he was, by birth, heritage and his human

consciousness. Nikola Tesla's father, Milutin, is always listed

as a priest, sometimes an Orthodox priest, or a Greek Orthodox

priest, only rarely as a Serbian Orthodox priest, which he was,

and a most excellent, learned and devout man at that.

Nikola Tesla's mother, Djuka, though always described accurately

enough as an illiterate, but an extraordinarily gifted woman, has

been, at various times, and often enough, referred to, and spoken

of, as a Croat. There was a tendency in the former Yugoslavia to

look for unifying factors which would help bring its different

nationalities closer together; thus, a certain political task fell

on the Tesla mother and son, and Djuka became a Croat, and in some

unscrupulous quarters is still so regarded, the demise of the former

country, and the destruction of Tesla's birthplace in 1941, and

fires, vandalism, desecration, and blowing up of Tesla's monuments

again in 1992, notwithstanding.

Georgina-Djuka Tesla was born in Tomingaj ("Tomo's wood enclosure"-

so named after her great-grandfather), the daughter of Nikola Mandic

(1800 -1863), a Serbian Orthodox priest in Gracac, and the grandfather

of Toma Budisavljevic (1777 - 1840), another priest, who was also a

military commander, a cartwright, and a fine bookbinder. She was the

oldest of eight children. Her mother became blind when Djuka was 16

yars old, and so it fell to her to look after her seven yonger siblings,

until her marriage to Milutin in 1847.

Djuka and Milutin Tesla had five children: Dane (1848 - 63),

Angelina (married name Trbojevic), Milka (married name Glumicic),

Nikola (1856 - 1943), and Marica (married name Kosanovic). All three

girls married Serbian Orthodox priests. Nikola, the fourth child, was

born on June 28, according to the Julian calendar, or July 10, according

to the modern calendar. He was born "at the stroke of midnight" during a

summer storm and lightning. The village midwife, afraid of storms, said,

"He'll be a child of the storm," to which the mother replied,

"No, of light."

Nikola's Baptism Certificate, in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade,

states that he was born on June 28, and christened the very next day, by

the Serbian priest from nearby Gospic, Toma Oklobdzija; the godfather was

Jovan Drenovac, a Captain in the Krajina army, also of Gospic. This

baptism, within twenty-four hours of birth, with the priest coming

to the house, instead of the child being taken to the church, is

believed to have been due to the seeming poor health of the infant.

According to Tesla's autobiography My Inventions, he regarded his mother

as a "woman of genius, especially gifted with a sense of intuition",

and credited her with whatever inventiveness and destiny in life he

posessed.

Djuka invented sevaral labour-saving devices and appliances. She was

a true artist with needle, and her exquiste home-spun, embroidered travel

bag, which Nikola kept all his life, may be seen in the Museum in

Belgrade. Milutin died in 1879. Djuka continued to live in Gospic,

with her brother, Priest Petar, who had succeeded his brother-in-law in

the church in Gospic, supported by Nikola, who was to go to America in 1884.

According to an article in the Srbobran, Zagreb, for April 15, 1892, Djuka

died on April 4 of that year, on Easter Saturday, at one o'clock in

the morning. Nikola had rushed home from Paris, arriving only hours

earlier, to see his mother still alive. Her last words were, "You've arrived,

Nidzo, my dear." (Stizes, Nidzo, moja diko).

Djuka was buried the next day, Easter Sunday, beside her husband, in

the Jasikovac cemetery in Divoselo. Six priests officiated at the

burial. After his mother's death, Nikola fell ill and spent the next

two-three weeks resting in Gospic and Tomingaj. From Gospic, on April 21,

he writes to his uncle, Paja Mandic, "... I am immeasurably sad, but console

myself the best I can. I had long anticipated this sad event, but the blow,

nevertheless, was heavy. I always hoped that mother would live longer,

because she was strong, and my and uncles' successes were a strength to her..."

Nikola raised individual tombstones of white marble and of the same height

and likeness, to each of his parents. On Djuka's stone was written:

Djuka Tesla

Wife of Priest Tesla.

Whether Milutin and Djuka's stones still stand is not known, but

their remembrance throughout the world had been secured for them by

their son. Most clergy families in Lika were related by blood. In

Djuka's family, for several generations before her, and for years afterward,

in every generaton, at least one son went into priesthood, and one daughter

married a clergyman.

All together, within the Mandic - Tesla families, in a span of less

than 200 years, there were 36 Serbian Orthodox priests. The Second World war

found six priests serving in the parishes in Lika. One died of natural

causes in July 1941, while the other five were killed by Croat fascists, one

of them, Milos Mandic, dying under tortures fit only to describe as court

room evidence. By now, most of the churches in which the Mandic and

Tesla priests served, have been burnt down, or lie in ruins. Djuka Tesla's

birth house in Tomingaj, although "under the protection of the state" from

1945 - 91, was allowed to go to ruin.

The American Srbobran, Pittsburgh, March, 2001; Voice of Canadian

Serbs, Toronto, April, 2001; Serbia, Hamilton, Canada, January,

2002.