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 in 530 and 533 mention is made of an “Andreas episcopus Bestoensis.” It seems that in the 7th century it was a metropolitan see.
A sect of Manichaeans, called at different times and circumstances Palocians, Fundagagines, Encratites, Maronites, Christopolites, and known in history under the name of Bogomils (v.) from the name of the Bulgarian priest Bogumil, caused grave difficulties for the Church in Bosnia. The diocese of Bosnia is mentioned in the spurious bull of Alexander II of 18 March 1067 and in the genuine one of Clement III of 8 January 1089 as a suffragan of Bar; in 1192 it was subjected to the metropolitan of Split, and in 1247 by Innocent IV to that of Kalocsa. From 1292 the Franciscans bore the principal burden of the care of souls. When in 1463 Stephen Tomašević, the last indigenous king of Bosnia, fell into the hands of the Turks and was beheaded, many Catholics and the greater part of the Bogomils passed over to Islam. The Franciscans took up the care of the remaining Catholics from Dalmatia, at the risk of their own lives.
By decree of 5 September 1735 the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith appointed a Franciscan apostolic vicar with episcopal character and jurisdiction over all of Ottoman Bosnia. This apostolic vicariate was divided into the two apostolic vicariates of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 September 1847. After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in 1878, Leo XIII erected on 5 July 1881 the archdiocese of Sarajevo with the suffragans of Banja Luka and Mostar, entrusting them all to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Owing to the political situation, it is not possible to provide statistics: the last available one is 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 Sarajevo and famous Marian sanctuary of the Balkans during the Turkish domination (15th–17th centuries), whither countless multitudes of pilgrims—Catholics, but also Orthodox, Muslims, and Jews—flocked from all regions of Bosnia, Croatia, Slavonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Albania (and even from Italy, Germany, and Poland) to witness continual and astonishing miracles comparable only to those recounted in the Gospel. From this sanctuary, as from a center of Christian life, the missionary work of the Franciscans radiated throughout the Balkan lands. The distant origins of the Franciscan convent and of the venerated miraculous image of the Madonna, painted on wood, date from the period before Turkish rule. The Turks, having taken Bosnia in 1463, continually subjected the sanctuary to harassment, exorbitant extortions of money, and fines, until on 10 August 1704 they set it ablaze, during which the sacred image also perished. Nevertheless, the people never ceased to go to venerate the Madonna amid those ruins, from which the Franciscans of Bosnia, only after 234 years (1938), succeeded in erecting a new modest church, thus reviving the ancient popular devotion.