Juraj Patacic de Zajezda, bishop of Bosnia or Dakovo (1670-1716)

This paper will present the data on the life and ministry of Juraj Patacic, bishop of Bosnia or Dakovo. The primary aim is to assess his merit in the re-establishing the institutions of the Catolich Church in the Eastern Slavonia, and his role in the renewal of the Diocese of Bosnia or Dakovo, the diocesian estate and the organisation of the religious life in the first decades after the liberation from Ottoman power. The paper relies on the analysis of published and unpublished historical documents and previous historiographical results. Juraj Patacic de Zajezda was the bishop of Bosnia or Dakovo from 1703 till 1716. He was the son of count Nikola Patacic and countess Marta Orsic and therefore a member of one of the most prominent Croatian noble families. According to literature, he was born in 1670 in Vidovec near Varazdin, while some historical documents recorded that he was born in the family estate Novi Marof. At the age of sexteen, he joined the Jesuit order in Zagreb where he studied humaniora and Greek philosophy and began to study theology. He left the Jesuit order because of poor health and continued the studies in the Hungarian Illirian course in Bologna where he received his doctoral degree. At a time when he took the office of bishop of Bosnia or Dakovo he was thirty-three years old. Besides the bishops, he held a number of other religious and secular services: he was an archdeacon in Varazdin, a canon in Zagreb and a provost in Pozega; a rector of the Hungarian Illirian course in Bologna, the imperial advisor and the participant in the national parliament in Pressburg in 1708 and 1714. Juraj Patacic was the first bishop of Bosnia or Dakovo who continuously resided in his diocese after Slavonia was freed from Ottoman power in the late 17th century. The conditions in the diocese were difficult: the incomes of churches and clergy were low, the diocesian estete was devasteted and, in general, the religious circumstances were not good. Bishop Patacic resolutely approached the material and spiritual renewal of his diocese, and was very active and busy with the various episcopal functions, not only in his own diocese but also in the surrounding dioceses in which their bishops have not resided. Among the other things, on the ruins of the old cathedral in Dakovo he build a new one in 1706. He also renovated and adapted former Ibrahim Pasha Mosque which he consecrated into the parish church of St. George. In 1706 he built a wooden bishop's residence whereas the construction and equipping of the Franciscan monastery in Dakovo lasted from 1711 to 1714. Patacic also granted the benefits and properties to the Franciscan monastery and the parish priests in Dakovo, defined the incomes from the stola, preached, consecrated churches, confirmed, inaugurated the priests in the holy orders not only in his own but also in the surrounding dioceses.He died in March in 1716 at the age of forty-six. According to his own desire, he was buried in the Franciscan church in Dakovo.