Zefa pl. Pavlović
The priest Stjepan Mrakužić, a native of Poljanica, published an article in the Samobor Gazette, no. 22 of 31 May and no. 23 of 6 June 1914, entitled "The fiftieth anniversary of Udmanić's banditry at Kotari", in which he described at some length perhaps the person most "deserving of credit" for Joco Udmanić's appearance in the Okić area at all — Zefa pl. Pavlović of Repišće.
The blame for the outlaw Udmanić's visits to the Jastrebarsko and Samobor districts lies with his associates: Zefa pl. Pavlović of Repišće below Okić, her common-law partner a certain Andrašin — whom some called Antić — along with a Romani man known as "Franc" and the two brothers Uzelac.
Since Zefa pl. Pavlović plays a significant role in the story of Joco Udmanić alongside that miller's wife in Moslavina at whose house he met his end, I shall, drawing on the records of the Okić parish archive and on the accounts of eyewitnesses, describe the history of this Zefa pl. Pavlović, who was responsible for bringing this banditry to Kotari, in the parish of St Leonard.
Zefa pl. Pavlović was born (around 1824) in Repišće into a noble peasant family. The parish of Okić has many peasant nobles: some who distinguished themselves in battle for king and country alongside their lords from Okić Castle, and others who settled on the meadows of Klinča Selo, having come as such from Bosnia. It is known that half of the people of Okić fled here from Bosnia to escape the Turks. Among the many noble families of Okić, the Pavlovićs of the village of Repišće were once among the most celebrated.
Yet, as a nobleman enjoyed the broadest freedoms of that era while remaining uneducated as a peasant, that very freedom often corrupted him and drove him to ruin. This is, regrettably, all too evident in the case of the noble family of Pavlović. Wallowing in every kind of plenty, some members of the family grew so dissolute and depraved that they led the lavish life of counts, until one of them was reduced to a beggar's staff, on which account the people took to calling him "the Count" — a name that endures to this day. Two of them ended up in Lepoglava as convicted criminals, one of whom died there; and this Zefa (Josipa) so thoroughly debased herself that she lived in concubinage with Udmanić's associate Antić (Andrašin?), by whom she bore a daughter, who married a notorious thief, and a son, who likewise ended up in Lepoglava — I shall not mention names, as some are still living...
This Zefa pl. Pavlović was a true scourge upon the people of Okić — she stole and plundered whatever she could lay her hands on. She regularly returned from fairs and religious festivals having been beaten, for market traders would thrash her soundly, and near to death, for pilfering goods from under their stalls. She was an accomplice in all manner of thefts and robberies, and on that account spent many a spell in gaol. She was a habitual visitor to wine cellars, ostensibly to eat and drink, but chiefly to learn of others' property and circumstances, which she would then pass on to her criminal associates so that they might more easily rob and plunder them.
For that reason, people feared her greatly and would pay her off simply to keep her from doing them harm. Among the common people of Okić, Zefa pl. Pavlović remains to this day a figure of historical notoriety. Her name has become, in the minds of the people of Okić, a byword for the most depraved kind of person. It is still considered the gravest of insults to be called by that name. The worst abuse and dishonour a woman of Okić can heap upon another in a quarrel is to shout at her: "You Zefa Pavlović!"
Zefa Pavlovićka lived on for a long time after Udmanić's death, dying in 1886 at the age of sixty-two. The Okić parish register records that she died "provisa" — a sign that the deaths of her associates must have shaken her soul as well, since she repented before the end.
Today (writes the Okić parish priest, Fr. Kućas, who communicated these details to me) one can no longer say of the Pavlovićs what was once said of them: "(...) The descendants have improved... Thanks be to God."
I am publishing this historical sketch because it was told to me in childhood and cut so vividly into my soul that it came to mind again these days, and I thought to myself: I shall write it down — in case it might one day prove of use to someone who goes rummaging through the past, says the priest Mrakužić.
The Okić parish priest Juraj Župančić established that Zefa Pavlović lived from 1824 to 1886, and that her branch of the Pavlović family died out with the death of her daughter.
