Jožef Smej (15 February 1922 – 21 November 2020) was a Slovene
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...
of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
Smej was born in
Bogojina
Bogojina (; hu, Bagonya, sometimes ''Zalabagonya'') is a village east of Murska Sobota in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia. It lies in the Municipality of Moravske Toplice.
Name
Bogojina was attested in written records in 1208 as ''Bogma'' (prob ...
,
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
and was ordained a priest on 8 December 1944. Smej was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Maribor, as well as titular bishop of
Tzernicus Tzernicus was the ancient name of an area in northern Albania, eventually part of the medieval Bosnian region.
Tzernicus, also known as Cerminic, is also a titular see of the Roman Catholic ChurchUmrl je upokojeni škof Jožef Smej /ref>
as auxiliary bishop emeritus of Maribor.