ZAGREB, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Capital of Croatia and archdiocese. Over an area of 22,795.5 sq. km., it has 2,353,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,900,000 are Catholics. It has 385 parishes served by 612 diocesan priests and 205 regulars, 2 seminaries, 28 male religious houses and 35 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 461). Its patrons are St. Ladislaus and St. Florian martyr.
The major Christian center in the western Danubian provinces during the 4th century was Sirmium (v.), which as an imperial residence under Galerius and seat of a prefecture could proclaim itself caput totius Illyrici in 381; however, the metropolitan institution was not organized there as in other parts of the Empire. On the Sava at Siscia (Sisak) a bishopric had been established whose bishop Quirinus (v.) is known, a martyr around 304; known as his successors are Marius (343), Constantius (381); with the barbarian invasions the bishopric disappeared like others in Pannonia and its territory became part of the diocese of Z. when this was instituted (cf. J. Zeiller, Les origines chrétiennes dans les provinces danubiennes de l'Empire romain, Paris 1918, pp. 68, 139, 364). This happened when the Magyar king St. Ladislaus (1077-95) extended his dominion over northern Croatia (1091) and around 1094, with the approval of the antipope Clement III, founded the diocese of Z. We are informed of this by a document of 1134, from the time of bishop Macilinus (ca. 1130-40), the oldest of the diocese of Z. that survives in the original. With the first bishop Duch, of Czech origin, the first priests came from Hungary, bringing with them the liturgical books still preserved. The bishops of Z., at first suffragans of the metropolitan of Esztergom, passed around 1180 under that of Kalocsa.
In the first 4 centuries of its existence the diocese of Z. comprised part of the present-day dioceses of Banja Luka, Senj and Modruš and of some others; to the north it reached beyond the Mura and the Drava, territory which it later lost after the erection of the diocese of Szombathely in 1777. Following the Turkish invasions and the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, it received notable groups of Orthodox, who had fled before the Turks or been brought there by them, so that they might work the land and serve as frontier guards. The bishops of Z., especially Vinković and Petretić, worked for the reunion of these populations, but with little success. The Uniate bishops had their seat first in the monastery of Mučić and later a Uniate diocese was created with its seat at Križevci (v.).
In the second half of the 16th century Protestantism penetrated to some extent among the nobility and the town bourgeoisie, but bishop Bratulić (1603-1611) opposed it energetically, bringing the Jesuits to Z. (1606). The Croatian Parliament (Sabor) in 1604 prohibited Protestantism and its propaganda in Croatia.
The Chapter was founded shortly after the erection of the diocese. Around 1185 it numbered 32 canons (today 28). Many members of the Chapter distinguished themselves in various fields, even in the military one (famous is the defense of Sisak against the Turks in 1593). At Varaždin there is a collegiate Chapter with 7 canons (founded in 1232 at Čežma, later transferred to Z., then to Lepoglava and finally to Varaždin); another collegiate Chapter, also of the 13th century, existed at Kaptol near Požega, but ceased with the Turkish occupation in 1536.
Already the bishops Stephen II (13th century) and Alexander Mikulić (17th century) had worked so that Z. might become an archdiocese. Only under bishop Haulik, later cardinal, following a request of the Croatian Parliament and through the efforts of ban Jelačić, was the diocese of Z. elevated to a metropolitan see by the bull of Pius IX Ubi primum placuit, of 11 Dec. 1852, with as suffragans Senj, Đakovo, Križevci and Belgrade (in 1914 Belgrade was made an independent archdiocese). With this, any ecclesiastical dependence on Hungary ceased.
As for the origins of Z. before the creation of the diocese there are no certain data. Although situated on the north-western periphery of the Croatian national territory, the ban frequently resided at Z., and the Croatian parliamentary diets were often held there. In 1242 the Croatian-Magyar king Bela IV granted it the title of "free and royal city." Through the whole of the 18th century there were frequent struggles between the episcopal city (Kaptol) and the civil municipality on the hill of Gradec or Grič (the present-day Upper Town). In the 19th century the third region of the city, the so-called Lower Town, underwent great development; Z. truly became the common center of the Croats. A small city at the beginning of the 19th century with fewer than 8,000 inhabitants, it developed rapidly into a modern European city (in 1953 it numbered 350,452 inhabitants), becoming one of the most important commercial and financial centers of south-eastern Europe. It is the seat of the Yugoslav Academy (the first Academy among the South Slavs), of a university, of a renowned literary-cultural society, the Matica Hrvatska, as well as of numerous other institutions (famous are the Strossmayer art gallery and the Ethnographic Museum with a large collection of Croatian national costumes, fabrics and embroideries, marvelous examples of folk art). Z. is also the principal Croatian religious center and not far from the city is found the most famous Croatian Marian sanctuary, Marija Bistrica.
The primitive Cathedral (patrons: the Assumption and the kings St. Stephen and St. Ladislaus), consecrated in 1217, was destroyed in 1242 by the Tatars; bishop Timothy (1263-1287) began to build a new one in a mixed Romanesque-Gothic style which was restored and transformed in Gothic style with two bell towers at the end of the 19th century (1879-95). The bastions around the Cathedral and the Kaptol are of the 15th century with later additions. The archiepiscopal Palace of the 16th century was rebuilt in Baroque style in the 18th century. The Gothic church of St. Mark, of the 13th century, was restored in the 19th century (the modern frescoes are by J. Kljaković). To be mentioned also is the Baroque church of St. Catherine (17th century) and among the modern churches that of St. Blaise, with ancient Croatian architectural motifs. The churches of the archdiocese are for the most part in Baroque style. The diocesan Museum (the printed catalogue is of 1940) preserves a notable quantity of objects of great artistic and historical value.
Among the bishops and archbishops of Z., besides those mentioned above, particularly distinguished were: the Dominican Bl. Augustine Kažotić (1303-22, d. in 1323 bishop of Lucera, beatified in 1762), George Drašković (1563-1578), who carried out the Tridentine reform and founded the Seminary; Martin Borković; card. George Haulik (1837-60), who in 1845 introduced into the archdiocese the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul as an independent branch and in 1860 founded the Society of St. Jerome for popular religious culture, and finally card. Aloysius Stepinac (b. 8 May 1898, archbishop-coadjutor on 28 May 1934, ordinary from 7 Dec. 1937, condemned by the communists on 11 Oct. 1946 to 16 years of forced labor, created cardinal on 12 Jan. 1953), who worked tirelessly to raise the general level of religious life, for the development of charitable activities and the creation of new parishes and monasteries of various Orders. - See plate CLIX.
Bibliography10 works
Djuro Kokša - Ivan Vitešić