Jože Mlinarič was born on March 13th, 1935, in Maribor. He studied classical philology and later on history as well. He started his career as a gymnasium teacher. He worked in the Archives in Novo mesto and (1971-90) in Maribor. In his research work he dealt with his main sphere of interest - the history of monasteries and ecclesiastic history. Many of his articles dealing with other themes have been published, however, his most important works are three monographs on the monasteries Pleterje, Kostanjevica and Stična. He took his doctor's degree at Ljubljana University in 1977. He is a full professor for feudal times and auxiliary historical sciences at Maribor University, since 1995, however, he has been also an associate member of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts.