Paškal Buconjić

His Excellency, The Most Reverend
Paškal Buconjić
O.F.M.
Bishop of Mostar-Duvno
Apostolic Administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan
Titular Bishop of Magydus
Diocese Mostar-Duvno
Trebinje-Mrkan
Appointed 14 December 1881
Predecessor Josip Mihalović (as Bishop of Duvno)
Successor Alojzije Mišić
Other posts Apostolic Vicar of Herzegovina
Orders
Ordination 21 December 1856
Consecration 19 March 1880
by Josip Mihalović
Personal details
Birth name Stjepan Buconjić
Born (1834-04-02)2 April 1834
Drinovci, Herzegovina, Ottoman Empire
Died 10 December 1910(1910-12-10) (aged 76)
Mostar, Austria-Hungary
Buried Šainovci, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Nationality Croat
Denomination Catholic
Motto Sve za vjeru i domovinu
(All for the faith and homeland)

Paškal Buconjić (2 April 1834 – 8 December 1910) was a Bosnian Croat theologian and philosopher, a Franciscan, the first bishop of Mostar-Duvno from 1881 to 1910 and apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1890 to 1910.

Early life and education

Paškal Buconjić was born in Drinovci near Grude in Herzegovina (at the time part of the Ottoman Empire) to father Stjepan and mother Vida née Šimić. He was baptised in Slivno as Stjepan. His family originated from Ošalj near Dubrovnik and were known as Vodopić. He was educated by Franciscans in Čerigaj from 1846 to 1849 and Široki Brijeg from 1849 to 1852.[1]

After being ordained in the Franciscan Order in 1852, he took the name Paškal. He attended schools in Ferrara in the Papal States, where he was ordained a priest on 21 December 1856. After passing the professor exam, he was called to Rome, where he lectured from 1858 to 1866. After returning to Herzegovina, he lectured in Široki Brijeg. In 1871 he was named a chaplain, and in 1873 he was appointed a vicar in Drinovci. He was elected a curator on 31 May 1874.[1]

In 1875, during the Herzegovina Uprising, he published a booklet in Italian called "The Main Reasons for the Uprising of the Christian Population in Herzegovina" and gave it to six foreign consuls who searched the resolution of the crisis.[1] In 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied by Austria-Hungary.[2] He wrote an address to the Emperor Franz Joseph presented to him by a Herzegovinian delegation. The address expressed the connection between the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those in Croatia.[3] Buconjić had a leading role in the Croatian national movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the new Austrian-Hungarian authorities forbade the Croatian and Serbian name.[4]

Episcopate

Buconjić was named a titular bishop of Magydus on 18 January 1880, and was consecrated a bishop in Zagreb on 19 March 1880. His episcopal motto was "All for the faith and homeland". Austrian-Hungarian occupation enabled the establishment of the regular church hierarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Diocese of Mostar-Duvno was established on 5 July 1881, and Buconjić was appointed its bishop on 14 December 1881. On 8 July 1890 he was named apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan.[1]

He consecrated the cornerstone of the Franciscan monastery in Mostar on 19 March 1889. The monastery was built on the location of the former parish house, where the cathedral church - the present day Church of Saint Peter and Paul - was also located. Buconjić agreed to make the church a monastery church, while the new cathedral church was ought to be built with the help from the imperial government. He informed the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith about this on 14 may 1885.[1]

Buconjić postponed the division of parishes between the Franciscans and the diocesan clergy until 17 July 1899, when Pope Leo XIII confirmed the Decisia, by which 14 parishes belonged to the diocesan clergy.[5] Bishop Buconjić published the Decisia only in 1908. At the beginning of this publication it was written: "We considered it adequate to present before the eyes of the priests of our dioceses, and especially to the young ones, the copies of the solemn Decisia in relation to the parishes established or those ought to be established. This Decisia must remain solid and constant to avoid any dissent or changeability of wishes".[1] He asked the Pope for permission to trust certain dioceses to the Franciscans, as he lacked the diocesan priests.[6] With time, however, the Deceisa remained neither solid nor constant and "the dissent and changeability of wishes" weren't avoided. The will of bishop Buconjić about the division of the parishes wasn't respected.[1]

Buconjić bought the land for the new cathedral in the Rondo quarter of Mostar (where the present-day Croatian Lodge "Herceg Stjepan Kosaca" is located). He bought lands and granted them. He brought the Franciscan nuns in Mostar in 1899 and granted the Sisters of Mercy a house and a yard in Ljubuški. Buconjić built the Episcopal Residence in Glavica, Mostar from 1905 to 1909, and moved in it on 24 March 1909.[1]

During his 30-year episcopate, five diocesan priests in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno were ordained, compared to the 74 Franciscans who were priestly ordained. Buconjić died in Mostar on 8 December 1910, and was buried in the Church of Saint Peter and Paul, the church he converted from the cathedral one to a monastery church. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, his tombstone as well as the Church of Saint Peter and Paul were destroyed by the Serb forces in 1992. His remains were transferred to a cemetery in Šoinovac.[1]

References

Notes
Literature
  • Hoare, Marko Attila (2007). The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day. London: Saqi. ISBN 9780863569531.
  • Malbaša, Ante (1940). Hrvatski i srpski nacionalni problem u Bosni za vrijeme režima Benjamina Kallaya (in Croatian). 1. Zagreb: Tisak Gradanske tiskare.
  • Perić, Marko (2002). Hercegovačka afera: pregled događaja i važniji dokumenti (in Croatian). Mostar: Biskupski ordinarijat Mostar.
  • Zovkić, Mato (1986). Katolička crkva u Bosni i Hercegovini u XIX i XX stoljeću: povijesno-teološki simpozij prigodom stogodišnjice ponovne uspostave redovite hijerarhije u Bosni i Hercegovini (in Croatian). Sarajevo: Vrhobosanska visoka teološka škola.
Web-sites
  • "Paškal Buconjić, OFM (1881.-1910.)". Biskupije Mostar-Duvno i Trebinje-Mrkan. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
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