Toma Ursini ( la, Ursinus; 1573–1606) served as the

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of Antivari (now

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in Montenegro) and

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

of Serbia in 1599–1606. He belonged to the

Franciscan Order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

Ancestry and birth

Ursini's ancestry and birth are uncertain. According to Vojislav Korać, Ursini belonged to the Medvedović family and was born in the

Popovo Field Popovo field ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Popovo polje, Попово поље, , ) is a ''polje'' (karstic field) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in a southernmost region of the country, near the Adriatic coast. Its size is . Popovo polje ...

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 ...

. According to Josip Turčinović he belonged to the Bastić and Medojević families and was born in

Ravno Ravno is a village and municipality located in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ravno was a separate municipality until 1963, when it became a part of the Trebinje munici ...

in the Popovo Field.

Church career

Ursioni studied theology at

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. He was also a historian. In 1556–59 he was a

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

in the

Republic of Ragusa hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world" , population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century , currency = ...

province. For some time he served as a bishop in Alessio (now

Lezhë Lezhë (, sq-definite, Lezha) is a city in the Republic of Albania and seat of Lezhë County and Lezhë Municipality. One of the main strongholds of the Labeatai, the earliest of the fortification walls of Lezhë are of typical Illyrian const ...

). Ursini was appointed Archbishop of Antivari in 1599. However, he resided in

Budva Budva ( cnr, Будва, or ) is a Montenegrin town on the Adriatic Sea. It has 19,218 inhabitants, and it is the centre of Budva Municipality. The coastal area around Budva, called the Budva riviera, is the center of Montenegrin tourism, kno ...

as the Turks did not allow him access into the city of Antivari. Ursini constructed a Franciscan monastery in

Paštrovići The Paštrovići (, ; it, Pastrouichi, Pastrouicchi) is a historical tribe and region in the Montenegrin Littoral. Paštrovići stretches from the southernmost part of the Bay of Kotor, from the cape of Zavala to Spič. Its historical capital ...

. Ursini obtained a

firman A firman ( fa, , translit=farmân; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods they were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The word firman com ...

from

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, stating that every Catholic household must give the Archbishopric two aspers annually. It also stated that Catholics must give twelve aspers for their first marriage, twenty-four for the second marriage and forty-eight for the third. The firman stated that every parish must also give a

ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

annually.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ursini, Toma Archbishops of Antivari 17th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Serbia Franciscans of the Franciscan Province of Bosnia Venetian period in the history of Montenegro