ZLOJUTRIĆ-SALINATE, PIETRO. - Franciscan bishop and apostle of Catholicism in Bulgaria, born at Tuzla (Saline) in Bosnia in the sixteenth century, died in the reputation of sanctity on 4 Apr. 1624 in the monastery of Gradovrh (Bosnia). In 1595 Clement VIII sent him to Bulgaria as apostolic visitor at the head of several other Franciscan missionaries. On 10 Dec. 1601 he was appointed bishop of Sofia.
Z. was charged with rekindling among the Bulgarians the languishing flame of the Roman faith and with reopening in those regions the line, thereafter uninterrupted, of Catholic bishops. In 28 years of apostolic work he reorganized the few Catholics he had found there, converted many thousands of Paulician heretics, and erected numerous parishes; he summoned to his aid some confreres from Bosnia, for whom he had convents and residences built, from which later arose the independent Custody of Bulgaria (1624). He sent many young men from the most illustrious families of the country to study in Italy, some of whom continued his work.