Fra Didak Buntić (9 October 1871 – 3 February 1922) was a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

and educator from

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

Early life and entry to Franciscan order

Buntić was born on 9 October 1871. The next day he was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

as Franjo Buntić. He entered the

order in 1888 (taking the name Didak) and finished seminary in 1894.

Career as teacher, friar, priest and politician

The next year he began teaching at the gymnasium in

Široki Brijeg , , nickname = , motto = , image_map = BiH municipality location Široki Brijeg.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location o ...

. During his time in Široki Brijeg, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

was built. He became the school's principal in 1911 and began to encourage the education of children from neighbouring villages. In 1919 he helped open a school in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

to educate students from Herzegovina. That same year he became the head of the

Franciscan Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Franciscan Province of Herzegovina of the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a province of the Catholic religious order of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as Franciscans. It was established in 1843 when it seceded from the Franciscan ...

and moved to

Mostar Mostar (, ; sr-Cyrl, Мостар, ) is a city and the administrative center of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina. Mostar is sit ...

. In 1920, he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as a member of the

Croatian Popular Party Croatian Popular Party ( hr, Hrvatska pučka stranka, HPS) is a right-wing political party in Croatia. The party was founded in 1997 by Tomislav Merčep Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geogra ...

, is his heroic effort to save the starving people in Herzegovina in 1917 (near the end of the First World War). In that action, he was named "savior of the poor" and

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...

of Herzegovina.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

brought Brotnjo, just as it did all other regions, great suffering - poverty, hunger, illness and death. 1917 was a particularly fatal dry and unfruitful year. The lack of staple food groups caused hunger and mass death. Fr Didak Buntić played a very dedicated role in rescuing people from hunger and death. Not only did he acquire food for the hungry and poor, but he also sent many into the wheat-bearing regions of

Slavonia Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja ...

to be fed and saved from a certain death. During the war, children from poor families were sent to these parts for rest and nutrition with the help of various humanitarian organizations and associations. The members of the District branch of the "Croatian National Community" (HNZ) played a significant role in this respect. In these actions, an effort was made to suppress religious diversity, so there were trains made up of children of three religions (Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim). It is estimated that in this way Fr. Didak, together with his associates, saved around 17,000 children from certain death.

Death

He died in Čitluk in 1922 of a heart attack.

References

External links

*http://www.didak.net/ 1871 births 1922 deaths People from Čitluk, Bosnia and Herzegovina Croat Roman Catholic clergy from Bosnia and Herzegovina 19th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina Roman Catholic priests Franciscans of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina Croatian Popular Party (1919) politicians Representatives in the Yugoslav National Assembly (1921–1941) 20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina Roman Catholic priests {{RC-clergy-stub