Alojzije Mišić

Alojzije Mišić OFM (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.