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 CROATIA

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CROATIA

Clonmacnoise" relate that Munis came back from Rome bearing sacred relics which the pope had given him for the altars that Patrick was erecting every- where through the country. The same event is briefly referred to in the "Annals of Ulster", under date of 441: "Leo ordained forty-second Bishop of the Church of Rome; and Patrick the Bishop was ap- proved in the Catholic Faith". It adds a special glory to Croagh Patrick that the first tribute of hom- age from the Irish Church to the Chair of Peter was sent from its hoary summit. From that sacred spot, on Holy Saturday, Patrick with outstretched hands solemnly blessed the men of Erin that they might cling to the Faith, and the land of Erin that no poison- ous reptile might infest it. Then, refreshed with Di- vine grace and comforted with the assurance that his labours would fructify forever, he came down from the mountain to celebrate Easter with the little flock he had left at Aughagower.

From the days of the saint himself pilgrims began to do penance on his holy mountain. References to them are found in many pages of the annals of the country. It is recorded that in the year 1113, on the night of the 17th of March, during a thunderstorm, thirty of the pilgrims perished on the summit. The "Annals of Boyle" relate that Hugh O'Connor, King of Coimaught, who came to the throne in the year 1225, cut off the hands and feet of an outlaw who dared to molest a pilgrim on his way to Croagh Patrick. The foIlo-nTng document of Pope Eugene IV, dated 28 September, 1432, shows how this ancient pilgrimage was recognized and hon- oured in Rome. " A relaxation of two years and two quarantines of enjoined penance, under the usual con- ditions, to those penitents who \-isit and give alms for the repair of the chapel of St. Patrick, on the moun- tain which is called Croagh Patrick whither resorts a great multitude of persons to venerate St. Patrick the Sundaybefore the feast of St. Peter's Chains" (Calen- dar, etc., of Papal Registers, Vol. IV). From St. Patrick's own time there had been some sort of a little chapel on the summit.

The "Tripartite Life" relates that the apostle him- self celebrated Mass on the mountain, from which we infer that he had an altar and a place to shelter it. For several centuries the Archbi.shops of Armagh laid claim to this chapel on the grounds that it was founded by St. Patrick and that they were his successors ; but the Archbishops of Tuam contended that it belonged to their jurisdiction. Finally, Pope Honorius III on the 30th of July, 1216, assigned it to the Archbishop of Tuam (Calendar Pap. Reg., Vol. 1). But in penal times when Murrisk Abbey at the mountain's base was dismantled, the venerable relic on the summit was de- molished. Still the pilgrims never ceased to go there. It was not, however, till 1905 that the chapel on the heights was rebuilt, and then on the 30th of July, Archbishop Healy dedicated it to St. Patrick in the presence of many pilgrims. The day of annual pil- grimage from time immemorial has been the last Sun- day in July. On that day about twenty Masses are celebrated within the little chapel while often there have been more than 20,000 persons kneeling without.

Healv Thr Lif,' nnd Wnlmns of St. Patrick (Dublin, 190.5); Bury St' I'alrirk IlhPlnrcin //isforj/ (London, 1905) ; Mor- ris, St. Palrifk. Aposlte of Ireland (London. 1900) ;FLEMlNn. Life of St. Patrick (London, 1905).- Thurston in The Month (Nov., 1905); MORAN in The Irish Theological Quarterly (.\pnl.

Michael MacDon.\ld.

Croatia, with Slavonia, an autonomous state. It is bounded on the north by the Danube and the Drave ; on the east by Servia; on the south by the Save; and on the west by St vria, the River Kupa, and the Adri- atic Sea from I'linne (Hieka) in the north-west to Obrovac on the Dahuatiiin frontier.

Hl.sroiiY. — Tlic n:\iiie Croatia is derived from that of a people called Croats {Hrvdt, Xpo^dros), i. e. "the

nation ready to defend its home and rights", whose migration from South-western Russia and Galicia of to-day — then known as "White Croatia" or "Great Croatia ' ' ( Velika Hrvatska) — towards the old lUyricum and Dalmatia began in the early part of the fifth cen- tury. There were several migrations at different times. The people settled duringthefirst half of the sixth cen- tury in Pannonia Inferior, now Lower Hungary, and on the eastern banks of the Danube. Here they strug- gled for their veiy existence against the Avars, a bloodthirsty people, and then crossed the Drave to Pannonia Superior and Dalmatia, provinces of the Roman Empire, to which they gave the name of Croatia. From 610 to 641 the Croats established their settlements on a firm basis. From that time forward they suffered various vici.ssitudes owing to the constantly changing political life. The pro\nnces occupied by the Croats were already peopled by lUyrian and Celtic tribes as Roman domains. Friendly terms ■were maintained, however, and together they made war against the common enemy, the Avars, conquered them, and finally established their own state. The executive head of the Croats was the han, a title still in use, and he had unlimited power as leader and governor of the people. Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, was comiielled to abandon his provinces in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. At that time the Croats occupied the following prov- inces: lUyricum, Liburnia, Pannonia, Dalmatia, and a part of Histria, now known respectively as Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Istria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Their kinsmen, the Serbs, settled in Montenegro, Northern Albania, Old Servia, and the western part of the Servian Kingdom. The cities Zara (Zadar or Jadera), Trau (Trogir or Tragurion), Spalato (Spljet), and Ragusa (Dubrovnik), on the Dalmatian coast, and the islands Veglia (Krk) and Arbe (Rab or Ab- sorus), in the Adriatic, remained Latin in character. Elsewhere, however, the assimilative power of the Croats was stronger and the Latin race disappeared.

Christianity flourished in lUyria, Dalmatia, and the other provinces before the coming of the Croats. At the time of migration the Croats were heathens; they did not accept Christianity until the seventh century, when they and the Serbs were baptized by priests of the Roman Church. The Croats promised the pope to live in peace with other nations and he, in turn, to help them in case an enemy invaded their territory. Pope John IV (640-42) sent the Abbot Martin to the Croatians, and St. Martin I commissioned John of Ravenna to evangelize this vigorous and adventurous nation. He created John Archbishop of Salona (Solin), a city of Roman culture, whence, owing to the invasion of the Croats, many moved to the neigh- bouring Spalato. Here John laboured also, and the imperial mausoleum in the palace of Diocletian was converted by the people into a Christian temple. Cyril and Methodius came in 863, devised a special alphabet (the Glagolitic for the translation of the Gospels and liturgical books into the Old Slavonic tongue, and spread Christianity through the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. Even before this time bishops resided at Salona (Sohn), Nona (Nin), Narona (Mostar), Epidaurus (Ragusa Vecchia), Siscia (Sisak), Mursia (Osjek), and Syrmiuni (Mitrovica).

During the eighth century Croatia was divided into several provinces, the principal of which were the independent territories of White and Red Croatia and the Banatus Sisciensis et Syrmiensis. The progress of the people attracted the "attention of Charlemagne, who occupied Histria in 7S,S and Northern Croatia in 792. In the year 800, when he was crowned in Rome, the Croats sent a representative. The rule of Louis the Pious (814 40), whose government was in the liands of favourites, wa.s mifortunato in its con.se- (luences for the Croats. Their struggle for freedom lasted from 879 until 925, when the people elected