Paškal Buconjić

Paškal Buconjić OFM (2 April 1834 – 8 December 1910) was Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan and a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of Mostar-Duvno from 1881 to 1910, as the apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1890 to 1910, as the apostolic vicar of Herzegovina from 1880 to 1881, and as custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina between 1874 and 1879.

Buconjić, who was born in Drinovci, Herzegovina, during the Ottoman rule, joined the Franciscans in 1851. After a year of novitiate, he became a member of the newly established Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina in 1852. He attended theological studies in Ferrara, at the time in Austrian Empire, and was ordained a priest there in 1856. Buconjić then lectured at Antonianum in Rome between 1860 and 1866, when he returned to Herzegovina, where he lectured at the seminary of the Franciscan friary in Široki Brijeg. Buconjić became a chaplain in 1871 and 1873, a parish priest in Drinovci. He was elected Custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina in 1874, a position he held until 1879. During the Herzegovina Uprising of 1875–1877, Buconjić, with Bishop Anđeo Kraljević helped to pacify the Catholic population and supported the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. In 1875, Buconjić published a booklet titled "The Main Reasons for the Uprising of the Christian Population in Herzegovina" and sent it to the representatives of several European countries, which raised awareness among the European powers regarding the position of Christians. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, it was decided that Austria-Hungary would occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. Buconjić was important in Croatian politics during the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 1880, after the Austrian-Hungarian occupation, Buconjić was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Herzegovina and a titular bishop of Magydus and was consecrated in Zagreb the same year. With the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy in 1881, Buconjić was appointed the first Bishop of the newly established Diocese Mostar-Duvno. As a bishop, he favoured his Franciscan Custody over the interests of the diocese. He tried to postpone the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy until 1889, when Pope Leo XIII issued Decisia allowing Franciscans to retain some parishes and designating others to the diocesan clergy. The Franciscans largely ignored Decisia. In 1890, the Diocese of Trebinje-Mrkan, to whose northern and north-eastern parts Bishop Paškal pretended, was exempted from the administration of Bishop of Dubrovnik and was given to Bishop of Mostar-Duvno for administration; after this, the whole of Herzegovina was under Buconjić's jurisdiction. Buconjić died in Mostar on 8 December 1910 and was buried in the Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Mostar. He was succeeded in his post by Alojzije Mišić in 1912.