Josip Srebrnič, also spelled Srebrnić, (2 February 1876 – 21 June 1966) was a Slovene

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

who spent most of his career in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Born in a Slovene-speaking family in Solkan,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(Solkan is now part of

Nova Gorica Nova Gorica () is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica. Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Treaty of pe ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

), he was ordained in 1906. In 1923, he became Bishop of Krk in Croatia, then part of the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...

. He served as bishop on the island of Krk for almost forty year, until 1961. During this long period, he publicly defended the freedom of the Roman Catholic Church against different authorities. He opposed the unificatory tendencies of the dictatorship of King

Alexander I of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karađorđević (, ; – 9 October 1934), also known as Alexander the Unifier ( / ), was King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 16 August 1921 to 3 October 1929 and King of Yugoslavia from 3 October 1929 until his assassinati ...

; in 1932, he published the booklet ''Crkvi slobodu!'' (Freedom to the Church!), in which he denounced the educational and cultural policies of Alexander's royal dictatorship. Between 1941 and 1943, he voiced his opposition to the chauvinist anti-Croatian policies of the Italian Fascist forces, and organized humanitarian help for the prisoners in the Italian Rab concentration camp, which was established on the territory under his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He continued to publicly defend the personal and human rights of his flock during the

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

occupation regime (1943–1945). In 1943 he refused to join the Partisans of the National Liberation Movement in Croatia or even to provide chaplains for Roman Catholic Partisans. After 1945, he was critical of the Yugoslav Communist regime. After the Second World War, he was accused by Yugoslavia of collaborating with the Italian and German regimes. Srebrnič died in Krk, and he was buried in the Krk Cathedral.

References

Brief biographical data (in Slovene)Homepage of the Diocese of Krk (in Croatian)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Srebrnic, Josip Slovenian Roman Catholic archbishops People from the Urban Municipality of Nova Gorica Croatian people of Slovenian descent 1966 deaths 1876 births