MILETIC, 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 apostolic vicar of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In that turbulent and agitated period of struggles and revolutions aimed at freeing the Balkan peoples from foreign domination, M. governed his province with singular skill for a full 28 years, a region already sorely tried for centuries.
Christian virtues thus flourished anew among that people, for whose religious and civic education he wrote an Abbecedario and a brief explanation of Christian doctrine (Spalato 1815; other eds. 1828, 1867, 1935). He restored discipline and intensified the pastoral work of the clergy, among other things collecting and publishing the Dispositions and ordinances of previous and of the current bishop and apostolic vicar (Spalato 1818; 7th ed. ibid. 1828). Exhausted by apostolic labors, he died in a reputation for holiness, while posterity justly accorded him the title of apostle of Bosnia.