BISKUP ANTUN MANDIĆ – »ZAMIŠLJATELJ SVEGA BOLJEGA I UZVIŠENIJEGA U BISKUPIJI«
BISHOP ANTUN MANDIĆ – »THE IMAGINER OF ALL THAT IS BETTER AND MORE EXALTED IN THE DIOCESE«

Summary/Abstract: Bishop of Bosnia or Đakovo and Srijem Antun Mandić, born in Požega, 14 August 1740, died in Đakovo, 11 January 1815, belongs among the more important figures of ecclesial and secular life of the XVIII and XIX century. He performed important functions in both the secular and ecclesial milieu. In the secular, he was a supervisor for Croatian national schools for Croatia and Slavonia and a secret adviser to the imperial court, and during the Napoleonic Wars he was a commissioner for Slavonia. In the ecclesial milieu, he advanced from the rector of the Požega seminary, parish priest, honorary and active canon to the titular bishop of Priština and, finally, to the Bishop of Bosnia or Đakovo and Srijem (14 July 1806). His most important work was the founding of the Theological Seminary in Đakovo (1806). As the bishop of Đakovo he gave Đakovo a new face. He brought with him from Vienna to Đakovo composer Jakob Haibel, Mozart’s brother in law, and appointed him director of the choir. He renovated the bishop’s residence, settled a colony of Germans, founded guilds in Đakovo, set up a doctor and a pharmacist, built a silk factory and later turned it into a brewery, planted vineyards in Drenje and Mandićevac, improved the riverbeds of Jošava and Kaznica and restored water mills. He renovated a fishpond in Štrbinci and a menagerie along Jošava which also included a white deer. His successor, Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer was right when he said, »Mandić was the imaginer of all that is better and more exalted in the diocese.«

• Details
• Contents