Review article
https://doi.org/10.47960/2712-1844.2025.11.313
Challenges of Illyrism – Franciscans of Bosna Srebrena and Identities in the First Half of the 19th Century
Rudolf Barišić
; Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
For centuries, Bosnia and Herzegovina occupied a pivotal borderland position among major Eu-ropean powers, its significance fluctuating according to their strategic interests. Following the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz, Bosnia became a gradually weakening Ottoman outpost. Over the subsequent decades, the Habsburg Monarchy made three unsuccessful attempts to annex Bosnia, resulting in only minor border adjustments. Internally, Bosnian society evolved into a system of confessionalism, characterized by significant religious segregation (Catholic, Orthodox, and Mus-lim) except in economic spheres where interactions were more pronounced. Each religious community developed its own distinct perception of Bosnia.
During the 18th century, Bosnian Catholics, having recovered from the demographic devastation of the Great Turkish War (1683-1699), increasingly looked to the Habsburg Monarchy for liberation. This pro-Habsburg sentiment intensified among the Franciscans, particularly after access to Ital-ian monasteries and universities – their traditional centers of learning – began to diminish. In 1785, Emperor Joseph II established a foundation for the education of Bosnian priests, which soon came to serve exclusively Franciscan students. By the 1830s, the number of Franciscans educated in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Monarchy surpassed those educated in Italy, leading to no-table differences and disagreements between the two groups.
The Napoleonic Wars disrupted Habsburg plans for Bosnian conquest. However, successful Ser-bian and Greek uprisings fueled Bosnian Catholic hopes for an end to Ottoman rule. Bosnian students in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Monarchy encountered Illyrian ideas, promoting a linguistic, rather than confessional, basis for identity. Illyrism, as championed by Ljudevit Gaj, was not their sole influence; Petar Marešević's 1836 advocacy for a pro-Russian orientation in Bosnia Srebrena, and the exposure of numerous clerics in Hungary to the ideas of the local Serb bourgeoisie, demonstrate the breadth of these intellectual exchanges. In retrospect, these en-counters contributed to a decline in pro-Habsburg sentiment among many Bosnian Franciscans. This stemmed from perceived Habsburg inaction, or even reluctance, to end Ottoman rule or im-prove the Bosnian Catholics' situation. The Habsburg stance during the Barišić affair, seen as fa-voring the Apostolic Vicar, was particularly disheartening.
With expanded communication networks, many Bosnian Franciscans began to see Serbian-style autonomy as a realistic political objective. In 1840, four students secretly left Veszprém, aiming to incite an armed uprising in Bosnia. This event, whose full scope, motivations, and the identities of all participants require further investigation, reveals a complex dynamic. Analysis suggests that older Franciscan generations, even those educated in Hungary, had not abandoned their pro-Habsburg leanings, nor were they prepared to abandon a strategy of relying on external assis-tance to improve their community's situation.
The varied fates of those involved in the uprising offer a telling insight into the period. Bartol Ju-rič vanished from historical records, his fate – execution or abandonment of the priesthood – re-maining uncertain. A few years later, Toma Kovačević left the Franciscan order, moved to Serbia, and embraced Serbian nationalism. Blaž Josić, while sympathetic, retained his Illyrian affiliation. Two years later, Franjo Jukić engaged in polemics with Serbian nationalists, rejecting their claims that Bosnian inhabitants were Serbs. He continued his collaboration with and expressed enthusi-asm for Ljudevit Gaj, yet ultimately pinned his hopes on Omer Pasha Latas, a decision that re-sulted in profound disappointment. Jakov Baltić diligently recorded events in his Yearbook, leav-ing behind observations on Bosnian circumstances. His unpublished collection of short biog-raphies, begun in 1873, reveals his integration into Croatian identity.
Although in 1878 Bosnia and Herzegovina came under the control of Austria-Hungary and main-tained a separate administrative framework, it simultaneously became the focal point of a spiritual struggle over its identity. This situation forced its inhabitants to confront the dilemma of who they truly were. Among the Franciscans, figures such as Martin Nedić, Grga Martić, and Anto Knežević played significant roles in this endeavor, often starting from different perspectives and not always in agreement.
In retrospect, it is evident that certain elements inherited from earlier periods significantly influ-enced the final outcome of the identity question. The primary factor was the confessional opposi-tion, symbolically illustrated by Kovačević's diplomatic mission to send a Bosnian Franciscan as a chaplain to the Catholics of Belgrade. A substantial group of Bosnian Franciscans emerged as some of the most consistent supporters of the Illyrian movement, which suggests that, in its Bos-nian variant, it ultimately failed to transcend previous particularisms and culminated in the Croa-tian national revival.
This paper examines the circumstances that fostered the aforementioned trends, focusing primari-ly on the first half of the 19th century. This period witnessed a confluence of factors – political upheaval, exposure to new ideas, and shifting religious and national affiliations – that shaped the evolving sense of self among the Bosnian population. Understanding this historical context is cru-cial to appreciating the complexities of identity formation in the region and the long-term impact on its subsequent trajectory.
Keywords
Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena; Illyrian Movement; confessionalism; pro-Habsburg stance; pro-Serbian tendencies
Hrčak ID:
335520
URI
Publication date:
1.10.2025.
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