Lovrenc Lavtižar (December 11, 1820 – December 3, 1858), also known as Lawrence Lautishar,[1] was a Slovene missionary in Minnesota.[2]
Lavtižar was born in the village of Srednji Vrh in Upper Carniola and baptized Lorenz Lautischar.[3] He was ordained on August 3, 1845 in Ljubljana,[1] [2] [4] after which he worked in Trebelno and Dobrova.[2] In 1854 he traveled as a missionary to the Native American tribes in Michigan, where he worked with Frederic Baraga and Ignatius Mrak in L'Arbre Croche (now Harbor Springs).[1] [4] Francis Xavier Pierz invited him to Minnesota in 1857, where he was assigned to the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Lavtižar froze to death during a blizzard while returning across the ice of Red Lake after attending to a dying member of his congregation.[1] [4] He was buried by Pierz in Crow Wing, Minnesota on December 26, 1858.[2] He was reburied at Calvary Cemetery in Duluth, Minnesota on September 22, 1892, with a burial service presided over by James Trobec.[4]