Alojzije Mišić (10 November 1859 – 26 March 1942) was a Bosnian Croat Franciscan and prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Mostar-Duvno and the apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1912 until his death in 1942.
Mišić was born in Gradiška, at the time part of the Bosnia Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. After finishing elementary school, he joined the Franciscan seminary in Ivanjska in 1870, where he remained until joining the novitiate at the Franciscan friary in Fojnica in 1874. He then studied philosophy at the Franciscan friary in Guča Gora from 1875 to 1878, when he was sent to Esztergom, Hungary for education. Mišić was ordained a priest in 1882 when he returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina, now under Austrian-Hungarian occupation. After returning to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mišić was a religious teacher in Sarajevo. In 1884, he was named a secretary of the bishop of Banja Luka Marijan Marković and a general vicar of his diocese. Mišić became the guardian of the Franciscan friary in Petrićevac near Banja Luka in 1891 and remained there until he was appointed the parish priest in Bihać in 1894. While in Bihać, Mišić was an active cultural worker. In 1904, he was appointed again the guardian of the Franciscan friary in Petrićevac, and in 1907, he became the president of the Franciscan residence in Visoko. In 1909, Mišić was elected to become the provincial of the Franciscan Province of Bosnia for three years.
The death of the bishop of Mostar-Duvno and the apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan Paškal Buconjić in 1910 led to a competition for his succession. The Church hierarchy represented by the archbishop of Vrhbosna Josip Stadler and the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina had their candidates. At the same time, Mišić gained the support of the Austrian-Hungarian government. With the help of the Austrian-Hungarian diplomacy and bishop Marković, Mišić gained the approval from the Holy See and was appointed Buconjić's successor on 29 April 1912. He was installed as bishop on 14 July 1912. The Herzegovinian Franciscans were displeased with his appointment, as they didn't get a successor from their ranks. Mišić served the two dioceses during the hardships of World War I, which in the end led to Bosnia and Herzegovina from being part of Austria-Hungary to becoming a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The Franciscans used their power in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno to secure their dominance. The Franciscans, who by the papal Decisia of 1899 had lost the care of over half of the parishes but still made up the vast majority of the clergy, wanted to preserve the dominance of their Province. They managed to influence Mišić not to raise the secular clergy to remain in small numbers. Finally, in 1923, with mediation from Mišić, they managed to get a rescript from the Holy See that, although temporarily, returned most of the parishes to their care. The Franciscans sought to ignore this temporality and cement the rescript as permanent. Although in the 1940s, it became clear to the Holy See that the rescript had been obtained falsely and fraudulently, it remained in force until 1965. Mišić and the Franciscans hid this action from the secular clergy until 1937.
In 1941, during World War II, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia collapsed due to the Axis invasion. Mišić helped to reduce the violence in Herzegovina, mediating between the warring parties. He greeted the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a German and Italian puppet state, in April 1941, but became wary of its state-sponsored violence against the minorities, mostly Serbs, Jews and Roma. Mišić repeatedly warned against the persecution in his sermons and letters. He died at his working table in March 1942.
Early life
Alojzije Mišić was born to Mate and Mara (née Križanović) in Gradiška in Bosnia Eyalet of Ottoman Empire and was christened as Stjepan. His family originated from Herzegovina. As a child, he was nicknamed Stipo or Stipica. Mišić attended elementary school in his hometown from 1866 until 1870. His parents intended to educate Mišić well. They were helped in this effort by the local parish priest, Friar Marko Dulibić, who advised them to send Stjepan to a Franciscan seminary. On 18 June 1870 he joined the Franciscan Province of Bosnia and entered the Franciscan seminary in Ivanjska, which he attended from 1870 until 1874. Mišić continued his education of the Franciscan friary in Fojnica. On 21 September 1874, Mišić entered the novitiate and changed his name to Alojzije. Mišić studied philosophy at the Franciscan friary in Guča Gora from 1875 until 1878, where on 15 November 1875, he took temporary vows. There he finished studies with excellent success. He was sent by the Province to study theology at the central school of theology in Esztergom in Hungary, where he studied from 1878 until 1882. While studying in Hungary, he took solemn vows on 14 October 1880 and was ordained a priest on 7 July 1882 by Cardinal János Simor. He served the first mass on 15 August 1882.
Priesthood
After returning to the homeland in 1882, Mišić was at first a chaplain in Banja Luka. However, the same year, on the suggestion of the archbishop of Vrhbonsa Josip Stadler, the Province appointed him a religious teacher at several schools in Sarajevo. At the same time, he helped with pastoral care in the local parish. Afterwards, he served as the secretary of Bishop Marijan Marković of Banja Luka and general vicar of his diocese from 1884 until 1891. Mišić was appointed guardian of the Franciscan friary in Petrićevac in 1891, and remained there until 1894. While there, he constructed the bell tower of the friary church.
In 1894, he was appointed parish priest in Bihać. While in Bihać, Mišić established the Croatian Singing and Tamburitza Society "Krajišnik", with a library. He also established various Catholic, economic and national organisations. He helped to revigorate the religious and political life there and often held economic lectures to the peasants, giving them various books on the subject. Mišić also helped to boost the trade of Catholics in the city by reconciling the warring families and establishing the traders and artisans' society for mutual assistance. He also helped to strengthen Croat national consciousness in the city and urged officials to establish national societies. Mišić also greatly renewed and expanded the local church.
He was again appointed guardian of the friary in Petrićevac in 1904, where he remained until 1907. Mišić was then appointed the president of the Franciscan residence in Visoko, where he served for two years until 1909, when he was elected Provincial of the Franciscan Province of Bosnia. In 1910, as the Provincial, Mišić demolished the old church in Bistrik, Sarajevo, and constructed the current Church of Saint Anthony. As a Franciscan priest, Mišić was an active cultural worker. To help liberate peasants from serfdom, he established the Croatian National Cooperative.
Appointment
In the last years of his life, the bishop of Mostar-Duvno Paškal Buconjić was often sickly. Even though the new episcopal residence was erected, Buconjoć refused to move and lived in the old residence in Vukodol. His advisor, friar Radoslav Glavaš, the bishop's secretary, used Buconjić's weak condition to remain in power and kept him uninformed and thus dependent. Glavaš directed the financial resources of the diocese to the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina and no decisive steps could be expected in the dioceses. This was noticed by the Archbishop of Sarajevo Josip Stadler, who, to improve the situation in the dioceses, asked Rome to appoint his auxiliary bishop Ivan Šarić as Bishop Coadjutor of Mostar-Duvno with the right of succession.
The new Joint Finance Minister Stephan Burián von Rajecz, a Hungarian nationalist, did not support the appointment of clergy who were not close to Hungary and thus disapproved of Šarić's appointment. The authorities supported the Franciscans and Šarić undiplomatically explained to the government in Vienna that he should be appointed because there were no good candidates among the Herzegovinian Franciscans. Burián ordered a candidate for Buconjić's replacement to be found among the Bosnian Franciscans. Influential members of the Austrian-Hungarian government in Sarajevo concluded Mišić, as a former Hungarian student and a person of trust of the pro-Hungarian members of the government in Sarajevo, should be the new bishop in Mostar. On 19 February 1910, the Sarajevo government proposed Mišić for the post of Bishop Coadjutor in Mostar but the government in Vienna postponed the decision for a few months due to the preparations for the imperial visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Buconjić saw the proposals for the bishop coadjutor as his dismissal and staunchly opposed them. Buconjić's stance so annoyed the elder Herzegovinian Franciscans that the new Provincial Luka Begić proposed himself as the bishop coadjutor during Emperor Franz Joseph's stay in Mostar on 3 June 1910. Buconjić, learning about the intentions of the governments in Sarajevo and Vienna, and Begić's proposal to the emperor, wrote to Pope Pius X and proposed Frano Lulić, a Dalmatian Franciscan; and two Herzegovinian Franciscans Špiro Špirić and David Nevistić, as candidates for his successor. Buconjić became disappointed with the Herzegovinian Franciscans, who saw his first choice, a Dalmatian Lulić, as an insult. After being warned only the emperor had the right of appointment and the Pope had the right of confirmation, Buconjić proposed the same candidates to Franz Joseph and asked him for the appointment of the bishop coadjutor.
The government in Sarajevo considered Lulić unfit because he was living in Rome and, as a Dalmatian, would not handle a Herzegovinian diocese. The Austrian-Hungarian authorities were repulsed by anyone from Rome who did not adopt the monarchy's liberal policies of Josephinism. The government in Sarajevo considered Mišić to be more qualified than the other two candidates. The government in Vienna informed Rome about its intention to name Mišić as the bishop coadjutor but Rome was balanced between the suggestions of the Austrian-Hungarian authorities and Buconjić and opted to wait until Buconjić's death to resolve the issue.
Buconjić died in Mostar on 8 December 1910 and was buried in the city's Church of Saint Peter and Paul. As requested by the canon law, on 19 December 1910, the Metropolitan Archbishop Stadler named Lazar Lazarević administrator in spiritual matters of the two Herzegovinian dioceses. The material care of the dioceses was given to Glavaš, who used his position to enrich the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina further. He informed the government in Vienna about his appointments. He proposed Ivan Šarić, Tomo Igrc, and Ivan Dujmušić as candidates for the new bishop in Mostar, noting he also considered Herzegovinian Franciscans but, in his conscientiousness, could not propose any of them. His proposals were quickly dismissed because the Austrian-Hungarian authorities preferred Franciscans over diocesan clergy and wanted a Franciscan to be the new bishop.