STROSSMAYER, JOSIP JURAJ

STROSSMAYER, JOSIP JURAJ. — Bishop, b. at Osiek (Croatia) on 4 Nov. 1815, d. at Djakovo on 8 Apr. 1905.

He studied philosophy and theology at Budapest and Vienna; ordained a priest in 1838, he subsequently served as chaplain in his native diocese, professor and director of the Augustineum College in Vienna, and then court chaplain. Appointed bishop of Bosnia and Sirmium, with his see at Djakovo, in 1849, nominated and consecrated in 1850, he governed the diocese until his death. He soon became the central figure in the religious, cultural, and political life of Croatia. Between 1866 and 1882 he built the monumental Cathedral of St. Peter at Djakovo in the Romanesque style.

He also contributed to the restoration of the Basilica of St. Clement in Rome and enlarged the Croatian chapel in the Basilica of Loreto. The establishment of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (1867), called for a certain period the Croatian Academy, of the Picture Gallery, and of the Croatian University of Zagreb (1874), founded by him, greatly benefited the cultural progress of the Croatian people. With equal munificence S. contributed to the publication of Theiner’s Monumenta Slavorum meridionalium, to collections of Croatian folk songs, as well as to those of Macedonian songs compiled by the Miladinov brothers, and to very many other works, while he maintained at his own expense Franciscan clerics of Bosnia as it then was under Turkish rule and supported every noble initiative on behalf of his people. An intrepid advocate of the sovereign rights of Croatia, he promoted and supported a general reorganization of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on a federal basis, with equal rights and duties for all peoples, despite conflicts with the imperial authorities.

S. envisaged the union of the Slavs separated from the Catholic Church, conceived as unitas in diversitate, founded on charity and mutual respect for rite, language, and traditional rights. To this end, as well as concerning the other problems of Eastern Europe, he collaborated closely with Leo XIII, and in 1881 led a delegation of representatives of all the Slavs to thank the Pontiff for the encyclical Grande munus. He also defended the Glagolitic liturgy, took an interest with the Holy See in the publication of Slavic liturgical books, supported the unionist movement in Macedonia, and cultivated the friendship of the philosopher Vladimiro Solovjev, who was at the forefront of the rapprochement between Russia and Rome. The steps taken by S. with Bismarck to put an end to

to the Kulturkampf in Germany and the Memorandum to Tsar Alexander II on the question of the Concordat between Russia and the Holy See in 1876, a Memorandum that led to the preliminary agreement of 1882 and, finally, to the Concordat itself in 1905. He achieved little, on the other hand, in Serbia, whose territory he governed as apostolic administrator from 1851 to 1896.

At the First Vatican Council he delivered two addresses, De doctrina catholica, and three others, De disciplina ecclesiastica, De vita et honestate clericorum, and De infallibilitate Romani Pontificis. Together with Dupanloup, Haynald, and Schwarzenberg, he was one of the leaders of the opposition to the definition of the dogma of infallibility, fearing that it would make the return of the separated brethren to unity more difficult; but he submitted and loyally defended the doctrine of infallibility. In a pamphlet, “Pope and Gospel,” by a bishop at the First Vatican Council (Florence 1870), there appeared an apocryphal speech attributed to him, actually written by the apostate Juan Augustin de Escudero. The sect of the “Old Catholics,” established in 1922 under the auspices of the Belgrade government, also made use of II.