Miletić, Agostino

MILETIĆ, AGOSTINO. - Croatian Franciscan, b. at Fojnica in Bosnia in 1763, d. at Vidoši on 31 July 1831. He studied at Graz (Austria) and in the Veneto, was professor of philosophy at Brescia and of theology at Padua; in 1803 he was consecrated titular bishop of Daulia and appointed vicar apostolic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In that turbulent and agitated period of struggles and revolutions aimed at liberating the Balkan peoples from foreign domination, M. knew how to govern his province with singular ability for fully 28 years, a province already sorely tried for centuries.

The Christian virtues thus flourished anew in that people, for whose religious and civil education he wrote an Abbecedario e breve spiegazione della dottrina cristiana (Spalato 1815; other editions 1828, 1867, 1935). He established discipline and intensified the pastoral work of the clergy, among other things collecting and publishing the Disposizioni ed ordinazioni dei precedenti e dell'attuale vescovo e vicario apostolato (Spalato 1818; 7th ed. ibid. 1828). Exhausted by his apostolic labors, he died in the fame of sanctity, while posterity rightly paid him the title of apostle of Bosnia.

Pietro Capkun