Dr. Jakli¿ was born in the parish of St. Gregory in the Dolenjska region of Slovenia on August 14, 1892. Upon graduation, he entered the seminary in Ljubljana and was ordained a priest in 1915. He fled in May of 1945 with other refugees to Austria. He taught for one year in the Peggetz Displaced Person Camp near Lienz. He then moved to the Displaced Person Camp near Gorica (Gorize), which also held Slovenian refugees. He taught in the secondary schools in these camps. He joined other Slovenian refugees who emigrated to Argentina in 1949, where he found a position as a hospital chaplain. The Bishop of Marquette approached Bishop Gregory Rozman to recruit a Slovenian speaking priest to move to Marquette to help them with the canonization cause for Bishop Baraga. Bishop Rozman was very familiar with Dr. Jakli¿ from his work in the Ljubljana Diocese and his authorship of a Baraga biography in 1931. Dr. Jakli¿ moved from Argentina to Marquette in 1956, where he spent four intensive years researching Baraga's spirituality. This put a strain on him, and he became very ill, forcing him to resign his position with the Diocese of Marquette. He relocated to Milwaukee, WI, to take a less strenuous position. He is best known for his two biographies of the famous Slovenian missionaries Frederic Baraga and Ignac Knoblehar. After the publication of his biography of Baraga, he continued to research this missionary's life, which led to his revision of the original and the issuance of a lengthier, more detailed Baraga biography in 1951 in Buenos Aires. Dr. Jakli¿ died on December 8, 1967, in the Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Milwaukee. The funeral mass was on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 1967. He was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Milwaukee.