Matica Srpska would perform a great service if it were to organize a scientific conference dedicated to the complete works of Teodor Pavlović. This conference would evoke memories and provide evaluations that would determine Teodor Pavlović's place in the cultural history of the Serbs.
This is especially important considering that the centenary commemorative publication of Matica Srpska, titled "MATICA SRPSKA 1826—1926," diminishes his role in the most significant undertakings for Matica's survival. This jubilee edition, besides being a beautifully bound large book, represents the history of Matica for that period.
In that commemorative publication, Pavlović’s exclusive merit for the revival of Matica’s work is disputed, suggesting that his role in Tekelija becoming a major benefactor of Matica Srpska is not that significant. Tekelija had been a patron for the education of Serbian children in Arad from 1810 to 1838 (pp. 18 and 19). Moreover, Pavlović is accused of behaviors and bohemian nature that allegedly led to numerous denunciations against Matica Srpska.
Attention should also be given to another chapter in this commemorative publication: "FOUNDERS, MERITORIOUS OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES OF MATICA SRPSKA," which provides their biographies. On pages 496—499, Teodor Pavlović’s biography is predominantly an attempt to undermine his merits in the revival of Matica’s work and his relation to the raising of the tombstone in Karlovo. An exception is a ten-line citation of Petar Demelić’s proposal to recognize Teodor Pavlović’s merits and commission the making of Pavlović’s likeness in stone.
To this day, no one has addressed this injustice, nor has any critique of it been published in any Matica publication. Teodor Pavlović’s works and merits are rarely mentioned. Marko Maletin, at the very beginning of his study on Teodor Pavlović, writes that since the erection of the tombstone in 1888, “the public last paid attention to his name then, and that was the final farewell to his memory."
Since Maletin’s study was published in the Journal of the Historical Society in 1935, this means that almost forty years had passed without any public mention of Pavlović. Even if we accept that Maletin made this observation in 1913 (when he states he wrote the work), that is still a significant period of 25 years.
Similarly, Triva Militar, a former pupil of Tekelijanum, in a letter dated September 24, 1956, informs absent former Tekelijans about the meeting of former Tekelija’s pupils held at Matica in September 1956. He mentions that portraits of Sava Tekelija and his manuscripts were displayed in the hall, but there was no mention of Teodor Pavlović, who may have been as deserving of founding Tekelijanum as Tekelija himself.
Thus, at the ceremonial session of Matica Srpska held on February 16, 1961, to commemorate the 135th anniversary of its founding and the 200th anniversary of Sava Tekelija’s birth, Teodor Pavlović’s name was not mentioned. Before this session, Triva Militar wrote a five-page biography and merits of Tekelija for Matica and the Serbian people. A shortened version of this manuscript was published in the Novi Sad "Dnevnik" issue 5133 on February 14, 1961, on page 10, where there was also no mention of Teodor Pavlović. In that article, Militar, among other things, writes: "It was a great national matter and gain that Tekelija entrusted his student home with all his great wealth to Matica Srpska by his will," without highlighting that this was thanks to Teodor Pavlović.
Tekelija, as already pointed out, was an explicit conservative and did not agree with the programs and aspirations of Matica. He became its member and president at the urging of Teodor Pavlović.
On this occasion, we must mention the kind attention and gratitude that former pupils of the Society for the Placement and Education of Serbian Children in Trade and Crafts "Privrednik" show towards the founder of "Privrednik," Vladimir Matijević. Every year on September 29, the day of his death, they organize a commemoration at his grave in the "New Cemetery" in Belgrade. This has been repeated for more than sixty years. The invitation for this commemoration is published with a photograph in the newspaper "Politika" in the obituary section.
We do not want to compare and evaluate the merits of Vladimir Matijević with those of Teodor Pavlović, as that would be inhumane at this moment. Instead, we want to emphasize the similarity of their motives—concern for the Serbian youth. What Vladimir did through the "Privrednik" society for Serbian children from poor regions, ensuring them education (apprenticeship) in crafts or trade, Teodor Pavlović did for Serbian pupils and students. By attracting Serbian wealthy individuals as donors to Matica Srpska, it was possible for more than a hundred years to provide scholarships for Serbian pupils and students at universities in Austria-Hungary, and after the First World War until the Second World War, also in Yugoslavia.
