J. J. Strossmayer as a Balkan bishop
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Abstract
This article begins with a description of the dual religious-secular leadership role played by the episcopal heads of a variety of Balkan national groups
in the 17th through 19th centuries. The focus is then narrowed to the transformation of the Croatian Catholic Church hierarchy from a privileged feudal caste first into an arm of the government bureaucracy concerned with the morals, welfare, and education of the Croatian people, and later into an independent establishment which sought to defend the social and national interest of the Croatian people against domination by the Austro-Hungarian government. The bulk of the article describes Josip Juraj Strossmayer’s efforts as Bishop of Djakovo from 1850 to 1905 to implement the final stage of this transformation. He built schools, aided cultural endeavours of all kinds, sought
to increase the importance of the Slavs both politically within AustriaHungary and religiously within the Catholic Church, and fought everywhere
against centralization. The article concludes with an explanation of why the
obscure rural Djakovo bishopric was a better base of operations for Strossmayer than the Zagreb archbishopric would have been, had he been appointed
to that post as many felt he should have been.
in the 17th through 19th centuries. The focus is then narrowed to the transformation of the Croatian Catholic Church hierarchy from a privileged feudal caste first into an arm of the government bureaucracy concerned with the morals, welfare, and education of the Croatian people, and later into an independent establishment which sought to defend the social and national interest of the Croatian people against domination by the Austro-Hungarian government. The bulk of the article describes Josip Juraj Strossmayer’s efforts as Bishop of Djakovo from 1850 to 1905 to implement the final stage of this transformation. He built schools, aided cultural endeavours of all kinds, sought
to increase the importance of the Slavs both politically within AustriaHungary and religiously within the Catholic Church, and fought everywhere
against centralization. The article concludes with an explanation of why the
obscure rural Djakovo bishopric was a better base of operations for Strossmayer than the Zagreb archbishopric would have been, had he been appointed
to that post as many felt he should have been.
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