Professional paper
Zagreb Diocesan Administration in Prekmurje and Its Impact on the Region
Franc Kuzmič
; Pomurje Museum Murska Sobota, Murska Sobota, Slovenija
Abstract
At around 1094 the Hungarian King Ladislas, after occupying Slavonia, established a diocese in Zagreb for the newly-acquired territories. Today’s Prekmurje and, until recently, Podravina regions also came under its jurisdiction. The Györ Diocese was established in 998, to which Kismarton (Željezno) County was subordinated. However, this county claimed all of Prekmurje, which led to a dispute with the Zagreb Diocese. This actually led to the convening of a church synod in Györ in 1176 which, besides Bishop Mikjulin (Miculinus) of Györ and Bishop Prodan of Zagreb, was also attended by other high officials from various fields. Veszprem also attempted to expel the Zagreb diocese from Zala County. When the situation had calmed somewhat, in 1740 Veszprem Bishop Martin Biro began to seek the restoration of his jurisdiction over all of Zala County. He included parishes in Prekmurje and Međimurje, a total of fifty. These disputes lasted for over 20 years, and the secular authorities also became involved in them, because the Empress Maria Theresa herself was aware of the problems. The Zagreb Diocese was criticised for certain shortcomings. As a consequence, in 1777 Maria Theresa established a new diocese in Sombotel. This was not the sole, principal reason for the emergence of this new diocese, for Protestantism was already quite strong in the territory covered by the Sombotel Diocese, as was the increasingly vibrant Protestant literature among the Prekmurje Slovenes. In 1777, 16 parishes from the Zagreb Diocese were incorporated into the Sombotel Diocese, of which 11 were in Hungary and 5 in lower Prekmurje. The records of the Zagreb Diocese refer to the territory of Prekmurje as “distictus Transmuranus,” from which the name Prekmurje was later derived. When they belonged to the Zagreb Diocese, the pastors of Turniš had very high and responsible positions. Zagreb Bishop Simon Bratulić brought the Jesuits to Zagreb in 1606, while in 1608, at the invitation of Krištof Bánffy, they also came to Lendava. The Jesuit missions on Bánffy’s estate from 1609 to 1619 were primarily “people’s missions” because the missionaries went to various settlements. There is a record from 1612 stating that two missionaries “persistently visited” 40 settlements. The Zagreb Diocese restored its administration over Prekmurje just before 1693, i.e. just before the Ottomans were expelled from Nagykanizs. Since it extended all the way to the territory of the Veszprem Diocese, even only in a minor section, an inter-episcopal border dispute once more arose. The Zagreb Diocese sent good priests to its parishes in Prekmurje; they were true spiritual shepherds. This is shown by the fact that in the seventeenth century, the Györ Diocese only arranged for one visit to its churches (1697-1698), while during the same century the Zagreb Diocese arranged for nine visits to its parishes in lower Prekmurje. From the records of these visits, it is apparent that the Zagreb Diocese was concerned with the religious life of both its priests and congregation. The statistics also show that the Catholic faith in the parishes of the Zagreb Diocese was well preserved, which was not the case in the Györ Diocese. They certainly also had spiritual books, either in Latin or in some other language, including Croatian, because a considerable number of basic literary works were published for that language at the time. Careful study of the work of the Zagreb Diocese in the territory of today’s Prekmurje shows that in comparison with other diocese it took good care of this area, above in the spiritual sphere.
Keywords
diocese; Prekmurje; Zagreb diocese; church administration
Hrčak ID:
78858
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2004.
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