Ivan Merz
| Blessed Ivan Merz | |
|---|---|
Blessed Ivan Merz
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| Born |
16 December 1896 Banja Luka, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, now (Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Died | 10 May 1928 (aged 31) Zagreb, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, (now Croatia) |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 23 June 2003, Banja Luka by John Paul II |
| Major shrine | Zagreb, Croatia |
| Feast | 10 May |
| Patronage | Croatian youth, youth as a whole, World Youth Day celebrations |
Blessed Ivan Merz (December 16, 1896 in Banja Luka – May 10, 1928 in Zagreb) was a Croatian lay academic, beatified by Pope John Paul II on a visit at Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 23, 2003. Ivan Merz promoted the liturgical movement in Croatia and together with Ivo Protulipac created a movement for the young people, “The Croatian union of the Eagles” (“Hrvatski orlovski savez)”, inspired by the “Eucharistic Crusade,” which he had encountered in France.
Ivan Merz was a young layman from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who lived in a turbulent age.
He was born from a liberal family, on December 16, 1896 in Banja Luka, when Bosnia was occupied by Austria-Hungary. He attended school in the multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment of his native town and graduated at the time when Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand was murdered (June 28, 1914). His mother was Jewish.
He joined the military Academy in Wiener Neustadt at his parents' request but, disgusted by the corruption of this environment, he left after four months. In 1915, he started his university studies in Vienna but was called up shortly thereafter to serve in the army during World War I. After that, he returned to Banja Luka, where he experienced radical political change and the birth of the new Yugoslav State. In 1919 until 1920 he was in Vienna, studying at the Faculty of Philosophy. In October 1920 he set off for Paris, where he attended some lessons at the Sorbonne University and in the “Institute Catholique”, preparing in the meantime his doctoral dissertation
He won his doctorate at the Faculty of Philosophy on the University of Zagreb in 1923 through his thesis, “The influence of liturgy on the French writers.” He was professor at the archiepiscopal gymnasium in Zagreb till his death (May 10, 1928).
Little known outside his native country, Ivan Merz fascinates those who approach him first as a Catholic student and soldier, then as an intellectual layman with a broad culture, who employed all his energy in serving other people and educating Croatian youth. Without a family or spiritual guidance, he found his way to sanctity, so that he was defined as a “Spontaneous spirit fruit”, where the presence of the Grace is experimentally proved.
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