Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena

Monasteries and locations

The Province of Bosna Srebrena includes the monasteries in:

Bosnia and Herzegovina at:

Sarajevo:

Rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Croatia:

Podsused – samostan sv. Ilije;

Serbia:

Beograd – Samostan i župa Sv. Ante Padovanskog; Đakovica – Samostan i župa sv. Petra i Pavla.

History

The Franciscans order arrived in Bosnia in the later half of the 13th century, aiming to eradicate the teachings of the Bosnian Church. The first Franciscan vicariate in Bosnia was founded in 1339/40. The province itself is the only institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina which has operated uninterruptedly since the Middle Ages.

The Franciscan order was allowed by Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror in the Ottoman Empire in 1463, after the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Friar Anđeo Zvizdović of the Monastery in Fojnica received the oath on May 28 of 1463 at the camp of Milodraž.

The Ahdname of Milodraž stated:

"I, the Sultan Khan the Conqueror, hereby declare the whole world that, the Bosnian Franciscans granted with this sultanate ferman are under my protection. And I command that:

No one shall disturb or give harm to these people and their churches! They shall live in peace in my state. These people who have become emigrants, shall have security and liberty. They may return to their monasteries which are located in the borders of my state. No one from my empire notable, viziers, clerks or my maids will break their honour or give any harm to them!

No one shall insult, put in danger or attack these lives, properties, and churches of these people! Also, what and those these people have brought from their own countries have the same rights...

By declaring this ferman, I swear by a great oath; by the The Creator ( Allah ), Who has created the Heavens and the Earth and Who feeds all of his creatures, by seven of his Holy Books, Allah's Great Prophet Mohammed and 124.000 former prophets, and by my sword that no one from my citizens will react or behave the opposite of this ferman!"

The original edict is still kept in the Franciscan monastery in Fojnica. It is one of the oldest surviving documents on religious freedom. In 1971, the United Nations published a translation of the document in all the official U.N. languages. The ferman was republished by the Ministry of Culture of Turkey for the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman State.

Without a regular hierarchy of bishops in place, the diocesan clergy fell into decline and disappeared by the mid-19th century. To support the local church which was functioning without resident bishops, the Holy See founded an Apostolic Vicariate for Bosnia in 1735, and assigned Franciscans as apostolic vicars to direct it. The Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena was restructured to correspond to the borders of Ottoman rule in 1757; it split in 1846, when friars from the Kresevo monastery broke off to found the monastery at Siroki Brijeg. A separate Franciscan jurisdiction (a "custody") was established for Herzegovina in 1852. Pope Leo XIII raised it to the status of a province (the Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in 1892.