SARAJEVO (VRHBOSNA), ARCHDIOCESE of. – It is situated in Yugoslavia and comprises part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the acts of the provincial Synods of Split of 530 and 533, an “Andreas episcopus Bestoensis” is mentioned. It appears that in the 7th century it was a metropolitan see.
A sect of Manichaeans, who according to the times and circumstances called themselves Paulicians, Fundarites, Encratites, Marcionites, and Christopolites, and who passed into history under the name of Bogomils (v.), after the name of the Bulgarian priest Bogumil, caused serious difficulties for the Church of Bosnia. The diocese of Bosnia is mentioned in the falsified bull of Alexander II of 18 March 1067 and in the genuine bull of Clement III of 8 Jan. 1089 as a suffragan of Antivari; in 1192 it was placed under the metropolitan see of Split, and in 1247 by Innocent IV under that of Kalocsa. From 1292 the Franciscans bore the principal burden of pastoral care. When in 1463 Stephen Tomasević, the last native king of Bosnia, fell into the hands of the Turks and was beheaded, many Catholics and the greater part of the Bogomils converted to Islam. The Franciscans undertook the care of the remaining Catholics from Dalmatia, at the risk of their own lives.
By decree of 5 Sept. 1735, Propaganda appointed a Franciscan apostolic vicar with episcopal character and jurisdiction over all Ottoman-ruled Bosnia. This apostolic vicariate was divided into the two apostolic vicariates of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 Sept. 1847. After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in 1878, Leo XIII erected the archdiocese of S. on 5 July 1881, with the suffragan sees of Banjaluka and Mostar, entrusting them all to Propaganda. Given the political situation in which it finds itself, it is not possible to provide statistics: the most recent are from 1940. At that time, out of 1,410,000 inhabitants, there were 341,700 Catholics with 252 priests.
OLOVO (Lead). – A small town in eastern Bosnia, in the diocese of S., and a celebrated Marian shrine of the Balkans during Turkish rule (15th–17th centuries), to which innumerable crowds of pilgrims flocked from all the regions of Bosnia, Croatia, Slavonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Albania (as well as from Italy, Germany, and Poland), not only Catholics but also Orthodox, Mahometans, and Jews; there miracles were continually performed so astounding that they could be compared only with those recounted in the Gospel. From this shrine, the missionary work of the Franciscans radiated through the Balkan lands, as from a center propelling Christian life. The distant origins of the Franciscan convent and of the venerated miraculous image of the Madonna, painted on wood, date back to the period preceding Turkish rule. After seizing Bosnia (1463), the Turks continually subjected the shrine to abuses, exorbitant extortions of money, and fines, until on 1 Aug. 1704 they set it ablaze; the sacred image also disappeared amid the flames. Nevertheless, the people never ceased going to venerate the Madonna among those ruins, from which the Franciscans of Bosnia succeeded, only after 234 years (1938), in raising a new modest church, thus reviving the ancient popular devotion.