Ivan Šarić | |
---|---|
Vrhbosna | |
Predecessor | Josip Stadler |
Successor | Marko Alaupović |
Personal details | |
Born |
Travnik, Bosnia Vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
27 September 1871
Died | 16 July 1960 Madrid, Spain |
(aged 88)
Buried | Cathedral of Jesus' Heart |
Nationality | Bosnian Croat |
Ivan Šarić (27 September 1871 – 16 July 1960) was a Roman Catholic priest who became the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vrhbosna (Sarajevo) in 1922. In 1940 Šarić was tasked by the national bishops' conference to put together the first modern Croatian translation of the Bible. A benefactor of the Bosnian Croat population, Šarić became a controversial figure because of his pro-Ustaše activities and rhetoric, including his support for forcible conversions to Catholicism inside the Independent State of Croatia during World War II.
Ivan Šarić was born to a Bosnian Croat family near Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 September 1871. He attended high school in Travnik from 1882 to 1890, entered the seminary in Travnik, and completed his studies in Sarajevo in 1894. He was made a priest in the Vrhbosna Archbishopric on 22 July 1894. He worked as a catechist at the Institute of St. Vinko in Sarajevo from 1894. Two years later, he was named a canon of Vrhbosna. Between 1896 and 1908 he edited the Vrhbosna newspaper, and, for a time, Balkan newspaper. In 1898 the Seminary Faculty in Zagreb awarded him a doctorate. On 27 June 1908, Šarić was named bishop-coadjutor of Vrhbosna and the titular bishop of Caesaropolitanus.
On 28 October 1908, Šarić gave poet Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević the last rites before his death on the following day. Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914, Šarić helped inspire anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo by composing anti-Serb verse anthems in which he described Serbs as "vipers" and "ravening wolves".