Odnos biskupa Josipa Jurja Strossmayera i Tadije Smičiklasa u Smičiklasovim pismima (1884.-1904.)
THE RELATIONSHIP OF BISHOP STROSSMAYER AND TADIJA SMIČIKLAS IN THE LETTERS OF SMIČIKLAS (1884-1904)

Summary/Abstract: In this paper the circumstances of the collaboration between Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer and the eminent Croatian historian Tadija Smičiklas are analysed, based on their correspondence (Smičiklas’ letters addressed to Strossmayer), held in the Archive of the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts in Zagreb, covering the period from 1884 to 1904. Based on the content of this correspondence, regarding key issues of Croatian political and cultural history in the quoted period within a broader framework of evens in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Europe, its extraordinary value as a historical source is verifi ed. This correspondence shows that Bishop Strossmayer and Tadija Smičiklas were not only friends but also close associates during the great job of creating and subsequently maintaining Croatian cultural life as well as the vital academic and cultural institutions of the second half of the 19th century. The Zagreb canon and eminent historian Franjo Rački, the bishop’s right-hand man in these efforts, died in 1894 and Smičiklas found himself in an unenviable position by partly taking over his role as mediator between the bishop and the institutions he was sponsor of, particularly the Yugoslav (today: Croatian) Academy of Sciences and Arts (further: JAZU). However, never playing a role in political life as important as Rački’s, Smičiklas dedicated himself to what he was best at – to writing, teaching and organizing activities in cultural and other institutions, which were in constant disfavour in Ban Khuen Héderváry’s regime. Smičiklas, working and mediating between them and the bishop, requiring fi nancial support from the bishop for JAZU and Matica hrvatska, forwarded him petitions from the common people and students and particularly stood up for them as professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb. Living in the capital of Croatia and operating in cultural as well as political upper-class circles, Smičiklas was always well informed of current events, concerning which he would write to Bishop Strossmayer. A signifi cant topic of their correspondence was the nomination of the new archbishop in Zagreb during the sede vacante of the Zagreb archbishopric (1891-1894). Bishop Strossmayer’s and Smičiklas’ engagement was specially accentuated in their endeavours to reorganise the Institute of St. Jerome in Rome and their engagement during the so-called St. Jerome scandal in 1901/1902. This was caused by the demands of Montenegro, supported by French and Russian diplomacy, that the Serbian in addition to the Croatian version of the saint’s name should be included in the title of the institution. Eventually, in 1902, the Croatian name, given one year before, was cancelled and the Institute was given back its old Illyrian name. The Smičiklas-Strossmayer correspondence refers also to variousother significant moments of Croatian policy and cultural history during the period 1884-1904.

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