KRIZEVCI (CRISIO), Diocese of. - A Croatian town near Zagreb, seat of the eponymous diocese for Catholics of the Byzantine-Slav (Greek-Catholic) rite, suffragan of Zagreb, erected on 17 June 1777: Crisiensis or Crisiensis Ruthenorum. From the 16th century, faithful from the dissident Serbian patriarchate of Peć, largely Slavicized Vlachs, began to flee from the Turkish Empire into Croatian territory. Mixed among Catholics, they were influenced by them. In 1611 their bishop Simeone Vretanja, residing in the monastery of Marča not far from Zagreb, submitted to the Holy See and until his death (1630) promoted the union among the Vlachs of Croatia, Slavonia, and Carniola (Uskoks).
He and his successors were only titular bishops, apostolic vicars, and were often regarded by the Latin bishops of Zagreb as their vicars for the faithful of the Eastern rite. Under the distinguished bishop Paolo Zorčić (1671-85), the Croatian Vlachs from the Adriatic to the Danube were either already united or on the verge of union. Zorčić founded (1680) a seminary in Zagreb that still exists today. This union, however, was almost entirely destroyed by the Serbian patriarch Arsenije III Crnojević, who, after the imperial army’s retreat from the Balkans in 1690, took refuge with a large number of his faithful in Hungarian and Croatian territory. Arsenije (d. 1706) and his successors, the archbishops and metropolitans of Karlovci, gradually reduced the number of the united to a minimum. In 1739, the very center of the union, the monastery of Marča, was burned down.
Only in 1777, during the episcopate of Basilio Božićović (1759-85), was a full-rights diocese established at K. for the remaining united faithful. The jurisdiction of the bishop of K. also extended to the Ruthenian colonists of southern Hungary, originating from Subcarpathian Russia (Rusyns). After World War I (1918), the jurisdiction of the bishop of K. was extended to all Byzantine-rite Catholics in Yugoslavia (Ukrainian emigrants in Bosnia and Slavonia, Macedonians, and 2 Romanian parishes in the Banat). Under the zealous bishop Dionisio Njaradi (1914-40), Catholic life strengthened in all areas, successfully withstanding the attacks of the resurgent Serbian-Orthodox patriarchate. The diocese suffered severe damage during World War II and under the communist regime. Along with many priests and faithful, the persecution claimed the life of the bishop himself, the learned Msgr. Giovanni Šimrak (1942-46).
In 1939 the diocese counted approximately 50,000 faithful, 11 deaneries, 49 parishes, 70 priests (2 in the United States of America), 3 Basilian religious, and 41 religious women in 7 houses.