Fra Grgo Škarićʼs Notes on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbian and Austrian–Hungarian Policy in 1875
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63356/sin.2026.007Keywords:
Fra Grgo Škarić, letter, uprising, Catholics, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Principality of Serbia, Austria–HungaryAbstract
The aim of the paper, which analyses the authorʼs text by the Serbian government agent (1869–1876) Fra Grgur–Grgo Škarić from the time of the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina (November 1875), is to present to the scientific public the political views of the last Franciscan of Serbian national orientation regarding the future of the westernmost Turkish province and the politics of the Principality of Serbia and the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy. The first part of the text repeats Škarićʼs previously known views on the resistance of the Catholic clergy to the unified Serbian statist idea, to which he belonged from early youth. In the second part, due to the alleged disappointment in the Serbian government, Škarićʼs political paradigm is changed in favour of Austrophilism, to which he had never belonged before. Due to the promotion of the Serbian national idea in Herzegovina and the pressure of older conservative compatriots of Austro–Croatian political orientation, Fra Škarić was forced to move to Belgrade in the autumn of 1869. In the new environment (1869–1875) he placed himself at the disposal of the Serbian Regency for propaganda work among Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A letter to his friends Fra Ilija Lekić and Fra Ante Vladić from Mostar in November 1875, published in 1912 in a Sarajevo magazine of Austro–Hungarian origin, is accompanied by tendentious interpretations of the unsigned Croatian historian Ivo Pilar. In the first part of the letter, Fra Škarić refers to the self–centred alignment of the Bishop of Herzegovina, Fra Anđel Kraljević, and certain Franciscans on the side of the Turkish authorities and against the Serbian rebels. While interpreting Škarić’s alleged words, Pilar continues the text by retelling parts of the letter with the latent intention of reshaping his political views. According to Pilar, Fra Škarić allegedly called on Austria–Hungary to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina. Otherwise, the minimum below which one should not go and which Serbia and Montenegro would oppose with all their might should have been the status of a free and independent Bosnian–Herzegovinian kingdom under the rule of the Habsburg prince and the sovereignty of the sultan. The state of mind of the Catholic and Muslim population supported this policy. In order to achieve all this, according to Škarić, an uprising should have been permanently maintained. The conclusion of the letter reveals Škarić’s peculiar Austrophilic political stance and resentment towards Serbian state policy. His warning to old friends about the increasing certainty of a fanatical civil war, which would be caused by the eventual annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Serbian principalities, Serbia, and Montenegro, is controversial and intriguing.
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