IVAN RAFAEL RODIĆ – FRANCISCAN AND ARCHBISHOP OF BELGRADE
IVAN RAFAEL RODIĆ – FRANCISCAN AND ARCHBISHOP OF BELGRADE

Summary/Abstract: Friar Ivan Rafael Rodić was the first archbishop of Belgrade (1924-1936). Before obtaining his position as the archbishop, he performed a series of significant and demanding services within his province, but also on the wider level of the Church. He was also a professor of Biblical studies at the Study of Theology in Baja, a participant of the reform movement of the Franciscan Order in Croatia, the first custos of the newly founded Croatian Franciscan province of SS Cyril and Methodius, the office he held on two occassions. He was also guardian of the Franciscan convents in Zagreb, Varaždin and Trsat, provincial definitor, and minister provincial during the period from 1912 to 1918. He rebuilt the churches in Zagreb, Ilok and Vienna, edited homiletic journal Dušobrižnik [Curator of souls], reorganized the Third Order of the Franciscans in Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina, and united them into the Alliance of the Third Order. He was the founder of the Society of St. Raphael and organised the pastoral care for Croatian immigrants in Canada and USA, where he was also the first church visitator. He was one of the leading members of the Croatian Catholic Movement. In 1923, he was appointed as the apostolic administrator of Banat, and the next year he became the first archbishop of Belgrade. As the archbishop, he organised the life of the Catholics within his archdiocese, founded new parishes and entrusted some of them to friars; encouraged the development of Catholic press and organisation of Catholic associations. He had successfully worked on the edification of ecclesiastical administration and pastoral life of his archdiocese. He resigned from his position after suffering a financial crash, due to the building of the Convict of Blessed Crisinus in Zagreb and unsuccessful organisation of the lottery aimed towards the fund-raising for building of the Belgrade cathedral. After the resignation, he resided in the Franciscan convents of Hrvatska Kostajnica and Požega, where he passed away in 1954.

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