Stjepan Horžić, A Spiritual Leader And Martyr

Horžić’s life will be celebrated in Mrkopalj on Thursday, 30 January 2025, on the 80th anniversary of his martyrdom.
Rev. Ante Zovko (58), a priest of the Archdiocese of Rijeka and parish priest in Mrkopalj, published the book Stjepan Horžić (pronounced [stjêpaan horžːitj]) mučenik za Boga i Hrvatsku (Stjepan Horžić, A Martyr for God and Croatia, Mrkopalj, 2025, 288 pages; ). It describes Horžić’s life (1918–1945) in the most exhaustive way to date (pp. 23–155), his arrest, torture and execution (pp. 156–184), and the development of the cult of the martyr who died in the fame of holiness (pp. 184–217). It is richly illustrated in color with 46 photographs and 39 facsimiles (pp. 225–270). The index (pp. 274–283) includes 766 names.
Rev. Zovko’s book is based on data from the Croatian State Archives, the Diocesan Archives in Senj, the Archdiocesan Archives in Zagreb and Sarajevo, the parish archives in Mrkopalj, Ravna Gora, Kraljevica and Vrbovsko, family albums, collected witness statements[1] and the author’s research into places related to Horžić’s life. Thus far, Rev. Stjepan Horžić has been mentioned in printed sources as a student of the Archdiocesan Classical High School in Zagreb, a student of the Theological College in Senj and the Vrhbosna Theological College.[2] He was slandered in the agitator-propaganda pamphlets of the Yugoslav communist revolutionaries,[3] and until the publication of this book, literature about him was very scarce; he was being shunned from oblivion by Ivan Vragović (1922–2011), Anto Baković (1931–2017), Hrvoje Gabrijel Jurišić (born 1934), Mile Bogović (1939–2020), Marijan Kovač (1943–2008) and Wollfy Krašić (born 1988).[4]
Stjepan was the firstborn of 14 children born to his father Mijo (1890–1978). His mother Katarina Horžić née Legin (1891–1930) died in childbirth when Stjepan was 11 years old, so his father remarried.[5] His sister Ruža (1923–2003) was a nun, named Ambrozina, at the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul from 1942 until her death.[6]
Key data
Stjepan Horžić was born in Rakovec Kalnički (Diocese of Varaždin) on 26 December 1918. He attended elementary school in Ljubešćica (1925–1929), classical high school in Šalata (1929–1937), and seminary (1937–1942) in Zagreb, Senj, and Sarajevo. He was ordained a priest of the Senj and Modruš or Krbava Diocese in Zagreb on 17 August 1941. He was a chaplain in Mrkopalj, a chaplain catechist in Kraljevica, and the administrator of the parishes of Ravna Gora and Vrbovsko. His zeal in working with young people greatly annoyed the Yugoslav Communist secret police called Ozna (acronym for the Department for Protection of the People). In October 1944, the Partisan authorities arrested him in Mrkopalj to imprison and torture him in Delnice. There he was sentenced to death in a staged one-day trial on 31 December 1944. His verdict has not yet been discovered. Communist revolutionaries executed him in Delnice on 30 January 1945. He was 26 years and one month old. He served as a priest only for 3 years and 2 months. His grave was destroyed, and to this day, it is unknown where his bones are.
To the heights!
The book reveals how Stjepan Horžić lived: eleven years in Rakovec, near Ljubešćica at the foot of Kalnik (from 1918 to 1929), eight years in Zagreb, at the foot of Medvednica (from 1929 to 1937), three years in Senj, at the foot of Velebit (from 1937 to 1940), two years in Sarajevo, at the foot of Trebević (from 1940 to 1942), and two years in Mrkopalj, at the foot of Velika Kapela (from 1942 to 1944), and, during that time, four months (from January to May 1943) in Kraljevica, at the foot of Mižolovo.
Horžić sprung up under the mountains where the healing Ljubešćica springs originate. He lived along the Sava, Adriatic and Miljacka, and then he expanded his activities all the way to the peaks of Bijele stijene and Bjelolasica, where the Dobra River rises. His area of responsibility also included Begovo Razdolje, the highest settlement in Croatia (1078 meters above sea level). Climbing and looking upwards gave him meaning. In one of the three preserved speeches, he emphasizes that his life motto is Excelsius – to the heights![7]
Educated
Horžić received an excellent education, graduating from a classical high school and studying philosophy and theology. He spoke Croatian, Latin and French.
Horžić studied philosophy and theology from 1937 to 1942 in Senj and Sarajevo, following St. Thomas, in accordance with the encyclicals of Leo XIII (Aeterni Patris, 1879) and Pius XI (Studiorum Ducem, 1923), and with a strong emphasis on the Croatian Glagolitic Old Church Slavonic heritage.
Horžić was an eminently good student.[8] In the subjects he studied in Senj, a large part belonged to asceticism, the practice of Christian perfection, dealing with the facts and tasks of concrete life in relation to its Christian implementation. From the seventh to the tenth semester, he studied in Sarajevo.[9]
A generation of martyrs under communism
He attended the Archdiocesan Classical High School in Zagreb from 1929 to 1937. Of the 27 graduates that year, 18 became priests. In 1945, Communist security agency Ozna killed three members of that generation: Priest Stjepan Horžić, Priest Dragutin Delija and former Seminarian Slavoljub Ivanec, and eight more priests from that generation were cruelly imprisoned in the dungeons.[10] On May 27, 1946, Blessed Alojzije Stepinac wrote about this to Bishop Joseph Patrick Hurley (1894–1967), the temporary head (regens ad interim) of the Apostolic Nunciature in Belgrade:
“1. A few days ago, in the area of the Odra parish in the Zagreb Archdiocese (15 km from Zagreb), in full view of the people, at 7:30 p.m., the OZNA gunmen killed the young priest Stjepan Povoljnjak. He was killed completely innocently, out of hatred for the faith. Namely, he was a priest with a holy and blameless life. He was killed like a dog, without any trial, without arguments. We remember how before Christmas 1945, the young priest Dragutin Delija was killed in the same way in the Voloder parish. He was forcibly taken out of the parish house at 6 p.m. and killed like a dog in the yard of the parish house, also without trial, without arguments. …
9. Every day, people are killed in various parishes. No one knows why or where they will die. Hellish terror reigns in all regions. …
12. .. we have to show to both our people and to the entire world the insidiousness of the current regime, the ‘regime of murderers’.”[11]
In 1938 there were 37 seminarists in Theological College in Senj. Of these, seven (19%) died as victims of communism (Rev. Pavao Bedenik, Rev. Ivan Brkljačić, Rev. Andrija Falatar, Rev. Nenad Gavrilović, Rev. Stjepan Horžić, Rev. Marijan Knežević and Rev. Anton Žilavec), and five (14%) ended up in exile (Rev. Marko Bakočević, Rev. Pavao Drenjančević, Miloš Čulin, Rev. Stanislaus Golik and Rev. Josip Lončarić).
Of the 37, 27 (73%) became priests: of the Archdiocese of Bar (Marko Bakočević), of the Diocese of Dubrovnik (Ante Salacan and Andrija Falatar), of the Diocese of Đakovo and Srijem (Josip Dević and Pavao Drenjančević), of the Diocese of Hvar (Marijan Knežević and Ante Miličić), of the Diocese of Krk (Josip Volarić), of the Eparchy of Križevci (Nenad Gavrilović), of the Diocese of Senj and Modruš or Krbava (Pavao Bedenik, Mirko Dinter, Marijan Dujmić, Josip Frković, Stanislaus Golik, Stjepan Horžić, Josip Jonaš, Vilim Kodrić, Ljubomir Ljubo Kučan, Josip Lončarić, Pavao Mačković, Mihael Primorac, Stjepan Sekereš, Ante Sironić, Josip Smolković, Vladimir Sušić and Anton Žilavec) and of the Diocese of Šibenik (Miloš Čulin).
Witness of faith
As a catechist and teacher of other subjects at the school in Kraljevica, at the parish religious education in Mrkopalj, and towards the high school students he taught privately, Stjepan Horžić was demanding, but fair.[12]
As a priest, he was unselfish and devoted. Simultaneously he served three parishes (Mrkopalj, Ravna Gora, and Vrbovsko)[13] on foot, which were 29.6 km apart; he did not have a motorcycle or a car.
He sincerely lived his vocation as a calling; he was extremely engaged in promoting Catholic morality and a life of prayer, dedicated to working with children and youth; he inspired many for God, and some for the priesthood.
As a pastor, he was caring; every eighth child he baptized in 1944 was the result of the soldiers’ irresponsibility and leaving an unmarried woman stranded. He did not allow mother and child to suffer because of male concupiscence.[14]
He was a poet; his poem “Prayer to the Risen Jesus” was published under his full name.[15] He also translated one sailor’s song from French for children’s performances.[16] He was a good singer as well.[17] In his sermons, he often quotes poets.[18] He led children’s choirs in Kraljevica and Mrkopalj and the parish choir in Mrkopalj.[19] He encouraged the people of Mrkopalj to introduce the devotion of praying the rosary together on first Saturdays.[20]
He kept up with the times. In the spring of 1938, he completed his studies of Marx’s Capital..[21] He had a camera, which helped him in his pastoral work.[22] He also had a typewriter, and he left some important historical testimonies with it.[23]
Three of his speeches have been preserved and published: a sermon on New Year’s Eve 1942, a sermon on Our Lady of Sorrows 1943, and a meditation on pain.[24]
Stjepan Horžić is one of Christ’s faithful who, just because he was an honest Catholic, a zealous priest and a Croat, was tortured and killed out of hatred for the Christian faith during World War II. He did not die in combat, nor did he participate in them. He did not serve in the army; he did not carry weapons. He dissuaded young men from carrying guns, and young women from walking with soldiers, in order to preserve women’s honor and decency. Mrkopalj had been under the control of partisan forces since 1942. The partisans in that area had three problems. First, the hunger that prevailed among the civilian population, because partisans prevented them from going to areas where food could be obtained. Second, the escape of recruits from their units. And third, the refusal of supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party to accept communist plans. Communist leaders in Gorski Kotar could not solve any of these problems, so they invented a fourth. They derangedly imagined that Stjepan Horžić was to blame for their situation. They decided to liquidate him and started slandering him. The criminal terrorist organization Ozna was in charge of the job. According to its structure, it was military intelligence and security administration, and according to the execution of the orders, it was secret political police of the Communist Party.
Around that time, the leader of the communist world was Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1878–1953), and the head of the criminal terrorist secret police of the NKVD was Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899–1953), who taught Tito and Krajačić the methods of the Soviet political police. The leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the supreme commander of the partisan units was Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980). The commissar of the Gorski Kotar region was Eduard Edo Cenčić (1921–2009). The secretary of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia for Gorski Kotar was Nikola Rački-Koljka (1914–1994). The intelligence for the territory of Yugoslavia was led by Aleksandar Ranković (1909–1983), for the territory of Croatia by Ivan Stevo Krajačić (1906–1986),[25] for the territory of Gorski Kotar by Vlado Lončar; his deputies were Luka Čemeljić (1921–1994) and Eduard Edo Cenčić, then it was led by Marijan Ofak (1924–1968). The auxiliary intelligence center for the Fužine district was led by Hubert Kruljac (1914–2003), for Delnice by Rade Ivošević Crni (1921–1998), for Vrbovsko by Božidar Božo Jauk (1919–2005), for Čabar by Josip Pleše Misan. Other prominent members of Ozna in Gorski Kotar were: Mile Krznarić, Zvonimir Zvonko Šneler (1908–1973), Dmitar Vukelić Pimić (1912–1970), Rade Peleš (1923–1997), Vladimir Vlado Stjepan Valečić (1920–), Mato Rajković (1920–1981) and Franjo Ban.[26]
Horžić was considered by the communists to be their direct competitor in Gorski Kotar, because he gathered people around him. The agitators admit that all their work in Mrkopalj was “powerless before him” (5 March 1944). This and all of the following statements are quotes from the records of spies,[27] who were members of the Ozna and Communist Parties at the same time. They never give Horžić a name, but call him a chaplain, less often a priest.
At the meeting of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia for Gorski Kotar in the second half of February 1944, it was emphasized: “In Mrkopalj [the situation is] bad. The people will not go to [our] meetings. There are about 40 deserters. The center of the reaction[28] in Mrkopalj is the chaplain. Women gather around the chaplain” (p. 1). “The center is the chaplain” (p. 2). In the continuation of the meeting, Major of Ozna Eduard Edo Cenčić, who has been the head of the Ozna for Gorski Kotar since 1944 and the editor of the newspaper Goranski vjesnik in 1944, calls for the lynching of the parish priest in Divjake, Rudolf Rude Miloš (1883–1971), and the chaplain in Mrkopalj Stjepan Horžić: “Shoot the priest in Divjake. Expose the chaplain in Mrkopalj”. The third step he proposes is to hold “conferences” to “create a moral right among the people for their execution” (p. 3).[29]
It is an irony of fate that it was Horžić’s executioners from Ozna, who left written evidence with which they actually “exposed” themselves and presented themselves in their true light. The following statements from their espionage work best refute all the accusations that they themselves made about Horžić in the Goranski vjesnik of 18 December 1944 and 8 January 1945.
“The chaplain keeps both women and young women in check – they go to singing every day” (5 March 1944). He is the one who hinders “the [communist] work of the youth with some of his church singing that the youth come to” (21 March 1944).
“We believe that the chaplain has the greatest influence in Mrkopalj” (29 September 1944). They believe that he is the reason why the residents of Mrkopalj do not support the Yugoslav partisan movement (26 March 1944).
By encouraging women to “beg for the war to end”, he “distracts the people from the People’s Liberation Movement“, telling them that “women should not join the army, that they should not hold rallies and dances, and even forbids wearing the Pilotka” [side cap of the Red Army] (30 March 1944).
The Ozna headquarters for Croatia warns its regional center in Gorski Kotar that priests “are taking a hostile stance and working against us. This is manifested through prayers for peace. All these groups portray our struggle as communist” (23 March 1944).
The agitation and propaganda department for Gorski Kotar writes in its bulletin:
“Our people should be warned of two things: first, our people cannot be helped in this way, but only by fighting the occupiers, and second, this anti-people’s work has nothing in common with religion and the church, but is a political activity at the expense of the occupiers and national traitors, so those who engage in such work cannot be placed under the protection of the church” (31 March 1944).
In the field, Ozna adopts a new language and in its surveillance reports establishes that women gathering for prayer and “praying” is “enemy work”. A women’s rally should be held and “the enemy work hidden in this prayer” should be addressed (5 April 1944). The Sodality of Our Lady (Marian Congregation), a prayer-ascetic-educational sodality of the faithful, for Ozna is an “Ustasha illegal youth organization” (18 July 1944). This organization is “under the leadership of the chaplain”, i.e., Stjepan Horžić (9 August 1944). That is why Ozna “began to actively monitor” this “enemy group of young women from Mrkopalj, although “we have not yet managed to insinuate anyone among them, but we will try to prevent their destructive work in any way possible” (19 August 1944). That “enemy group” consists of “a chaplain and 20 girls” whom he “leads to singing, criticizes for walking with comrade partisans, prevents them from going to dances”. After the infiltration of one informant failed, even two informants were tasked with penetrating the organization. “For now, this is our only possible way out of this difficult situation” (19 September 1944).
From 17 October 1944 to 30 January 1945, for 105 days, Stjepan Horžić was tortured in the dungeons, basements, and prisons of the secret communist police Ozna in Delnice, where he was shot, at the foot of Dragomalj, on a slope of the wooded and waterless mountain. His grave is unknown. He was executed at the age of 27 and in his fourth year of priesthood. Eyewitnesses describe his execution as similar to that of Blessed Miguel Pro (1891–1927).[30] On the memorial icons of his First Mass, he prophetically wrote as his motto: “I will praise thee, Lord, for thou hast received me” (Psalm 30:2).[31]
Among the reactions to Horžić’s arrest, Ozna records this: “Ivka Crnić from Mrkopalj said on 27 November [1944]: Why did the Partisans imprison the chaplain? Now there is no one to teach children to sing and play” (8 December 1944). Although Ozna sources repeatedly record that Horžić “declared that Germany would lose the war and that our people would soon be liberated” (24 July 1944, 28 July 1944) and “The Partisans will win” (29 September 1944), this did not prevent them from accusing him at trial for making contrary statements.
After Horžić was sentenced to death on New Year’s Eve 1944, Ozna’s informant reported: “Some reactionaries were clearly affected by the priest’s death sentence. The slogan was also felt that the partisans had now quarreled with the priests” (3 January 1945).
Conclusion
Stjepan Horžić lived theological and cardinal virtues to a heroic degree. Before his death, he forgave all who had testified falsely against him during the investigation and “trial” and promised to pray for those who had executed him.[32]
He was a Catholic by faith and conviction, a European by culture and education, a Croat by ethnicity and nationality. By his birth he originates from Rakovec; by baptism, elementary school and first Mass from Ljubešćica; by education from Zagreb, Senj and Sarajevo. By the residence he was from Mrkopalj. By his temporary work he was from Kraljevica, Ravna Gora and Vrbovsko. By martyrdom and birth for Heaven he is from Delnice, Croatia. Eight decades ago he received the ἀμαράντινον τῆς δόξης στέφανον / tòn amarántinon tē̃s dóxēs stéphanon – „the unfading crown of glory“ (1 Peter 5:4), an eternal reward. Actually, Stephen, the Greek Stéphanos, means the crown of victory, the winner’s wreath. Now, he belongs to the Church, on the altar, and to the hearts of sincere supplicants, and his sermons belong on the breviary.
In the purity of his Catholic zeal, Stjepan Horžić, priest and martyr, stands alongside Blessed Alojzije Stepinac (1898–1960), bishop and martyr, and Blessed Miroslav Bulešić (1920–1947), priest and martyr. All three were victims of defending the rights of God and the Catholic identity of their Croatian people against Yugoslav communist totalitarianism.
The verses of Rajmund Kupareo (1914–1996) can be applied to Stjepan Horžić:[33]
They murdered you, so they could stop
The voice of your heart, louder than all bells,
And the wave of your laughter, inclined to a child’s soul.
They murdered you, to take revenge on your God.
For without your fresh, martyr’s wreath,
Our young blossoms would be consumed by drought:
Many a girl would have her pure soul
Snatched from her eye, as clear as a spring.
There is no grave of yours, since your grave is everywhere,
Nor your dear name (for they are countless).
We only feel that you are beloved by everyone
And that your blood renews the native land.
Croatian, French, German, Italian
[1] The witnesses who gave statements about their knowledge about Stjepan Horžić are: Msgr. Ivan Vragović (1922–2011), Danica Dana Matković née Cuculić from Mrkopalj (1930), Antonija Milena Crnić née Petrović (1925–2015), Elvira Skender née Radošević (1930–2022), Matilda Tilda Cuculić (1921–2016), Dubravka Lipovac (1935–2021), Msgr. Juraj Petrović (1932–2018), Hermina Zaborac née Crnić (1951), Marinka Mary Troha née Bruketa (1942), Ana Vilmina Tomić née Crnić (1943), Dragica Gržanić née Cuculić (1925–2024), Ana Anka Cuculić (1927–2024), Marija Pavlić née Jakovac (1933), Franka Krizmanić née Lesac (1932), s. Ksaverija Ana Štimac (1928–2003), Josip Tomić (1933) from Sunger, Josip Gotić (1956) from Samobor, Saša Horžić (1983) from Virovitica, Ana Šijaković née Horžić (1958) from Sesvete and Božica Gavranović née Horžić (1961) from Gostinjac.
[2] Nadbiskupska klasična gimnazija s pravom javnosti u Zagrebu: Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1930-31, Zagreb, 1931, p. 32; Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1931-32, Zagreb, 1932, p. 35; Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1932-33, Zagreb, 1933, p. 35; Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1933-34, Zagreb, 1934, p. 36; Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1934-35, Zagreb, 1935, p. 44; Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1935-36, Zagreb, 1936, p. 39; Izvještaj za školsku godinu 1936-37, Zagreb, 1937, p. 41; Vrhbosanska katolička bogoslovija 1890–1990., ed. Pero Sudar, Franjo Topić and Tomo Vukšić, Sarajevo – Bol, 1993, p. 484; Visoko školstvo na području Riječko-senjske metropolije: spomenica, ed. Mile Bogović, Zagreb: Kršćanska sadašnjost; Rijeka: Teologija u Rijeci, 1999, p. 51; Marijan Franjčić, Nadbiskupska klasična gimnazija s pravom javnosti u Zagrebu: maturanti 1920.–2017, Zagreb, 2017, p. 265.
[3] Najnoviji pokušaji zavođenja našeg naroda, Goranski vjesnik, volume 2, nr. 14 (43) of 31 March 1944, p. 1; Protunarodni rad jednog svećenika, Goranski vjesnik, volume 2, nr. 81 of 18 December 1944, p. 5; Zločinci pred sudom, Goranski vjesnik, volume 3, nr. 2 (84) of 8 January 1945, p. 3; Viktor Novak, Magnum crimen: Pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj, Zagreb, 1948, p. 769; Milan Basta, Rat je završen sedam dana kasnije, Zagreb: Globus, 1976, 21977, Zagreb: Spektar, 31980, p. 177; Beograd, 41982, 51986; Nikola Rački-Koljka, Sjećanja na revoluciju, Rijeka, 1984, p. 195.
[4] Mile Bogović Slunjski, Iz prošlosti mrkopaljske župe, Zvona (Rijeka), 29/1991, nr. 7–8, p. 9; Mile Bogović, Svećenici s područja današnje Riječko-senjske nadbiskupije poginuli u Drugom svjetskom ratu, Zvona, 30/1992, nr. 6, p. 5; Ivan Vragović, Naš svećenik – mučenik Stjepan Horžić, Zvona, 30/1992, nr. 12, p. 9; Anto Baković, Stradanja Crkve u Hrvata u Drugom svjetskom ratu: Svećenici žrtve rata i poraća 1941–1945 i dalje, Zagreb, 1994, p. 86; U povodu 50. godišnjice ubojstva svećenika Stjepana Horžića, Zvona, 33/1995, nr. 2, p. 9; Marijan Kovač, Živjeli smo u vrijeme zločina, Politički zatvorenik (Zagreb), 7/1997, nr. 66 / September 1997, pp. 11–12; Marijan Kovač, Dva mučenika za vjeru i dom, Zvona, 38/2000, nr. 2, p. 13; Hrvatin Gabrijel Jurišić, Mučenici i Božji ugodnici Gospićko-senjske biskupije, Kačić (Split), 44–45 (2012–2013), p. 241 and 250; Anto Baković, Hrvatski martirologij XX. stoljeća, Zagreb, 2007, p. 253–254; Svećenici Riječke nadbiskupije žrtve rata i poraća, Rijeka: Riječka nadbiskupija, 2010, pp. 6–9; Wollfy Krašić, Obračun jugoslavenskih komunista s „narodnim neprijateljem“ u Gorskome kotaru – primjer svećenika Stjepana Horžića, Historijski zbornik (Zagreb), 77/2024, nr. 1, pp. 83–101; Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić mučenik za Boga i Hrvatsku, Mrkopalj, 2025, 288 pp.
[5] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 26–27.
[6] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 26, 60–61 and 227.
[7] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 9, 65, 70 and 71.
[8] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 234, 236 and 238. His teachers in Senj in 1937/1938 were: for philosophy and dogmatics, the prominent philosopher and anti-fascist Dominican Fr. Jacint Bošković (1900–1947); for asceticism, Josip Horvat (1899–1993); for moral theology and Old Church Slavonic language and literature, Canon Matija Glažar (1880–1949); for canon law, church art and Hebrew language, Canon Ante Lončarić (1874–1950); for Holy Scripture, Canon Ivan Ivo Blažević (1895–1979); for church history, Josip Burić (1910–1997); for curial style, Canon Msgr. Antun Golik (1884–1960); for pedagogy, sociology and dogmatics Adalbert Ježić (1912–1986) and for church music Vinko Medved (1906–1964), and from the following year for philosophy Josip Šojat (1912–1996). Some of them died in exile in the post-war Croatian emigration (Blažević, Burić and Golik), and Ježić left the priesthood in 1952.
[9] Vrhbosanska katolička bogoslovija 1890–1990., ed. Pero Sudar, Franjo Topić and Tomo Vukšić, Sarajevo – Bol, 1993, p. 484; Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 53, 55, 59, 60, 191 and 238. While attended by Horžić, the Vrhbosna’s Higher Theological College teachers were: Ante Alfirević (1875–1945), Jakov Beller (1894–1984), Petar Božić (1895–1963), Božidar Bralo (1907–1945), Karlo Ferenčić (1897–1967), Branislav Branko Grulich (1912–1989), Tomo Jagrić (1892–1969), Josip Jurić (1894–1964), Filip Mašić (1894–1978), Stjepan Tomislav Poglajen (1906–1990), Antun Schenk (1909–), Alojzije Turčić (1883–1957) and Miroslav Vanino (1879–1965).
[10] Stjepan Kožul, Maturanti 1937. na Šalati (24 January 2025). Priests Vid Cipriš (1918–2001), Srećko Draksler (1918–1994), Franjo Glumpak (1917–1960), Stjepan Golubić (1918–1986), Krešimir Ivšić (1918–1989), Franjo Maček (1916–2003) and Josip Sodar (1917–1983) served their sentences in Stara Gradiška prison, and Dragutin Žnidaršić (1918–1988) in Zagreb.
[11] Juraj Batelja, Blaženi Alojzije Stepinac – svjedok Evanđelja ljubavi: Knjiga 3. Dokumenti II, Zagreb, 2010, nr. 599, p. 358, passage 1: “Ante paucos dies occisus est in conspectu hominum hora 7.30 post meridiem in territorio paroeciae Odra, dioecesis Zagrabiensis (in spatio 15 km a Zagreb) a militibus ‘OZNA’ iuvenis sacerdos Stephanus Povoljnjak. Occisus est omnino innocens, in odium fidei, nam erat sacerdos sanctae et immaculatae vitae; occisus est tamquam canis, sine ullo processu, sine argumentis. Cum memores simus, ante Nativitatem Domini 1945. eodem modo occisum esse in paroecia Voloder iuvenem sacerdotem Carolum Delija, qui per vim eductus fuit e domo paroeciali hora 6. post meridiem et occisus tamquam canis in area iuxta domum paroecialem, item sine processu, sine argumentis”; p. 360, passage 9: “Quotidie occiduntur homines in variis paroeciis. Nemo scit neque cur, neque ubi moriantur. Terror infernalis locum habet, in omnibus provinciis.”; passage 12: “totam perfidiam regiminis existentis, ‘regiminis homicidarum’, tam populo nostro, quam mundo universo ostensuri sumus”.
[12] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 77–78 and 131.
[13] The parishes in which Horžić worked somewhat later were inhabited in 1937 by 1,443 Catholics (Kraljevica), 3,757 (Mrkopalj), 2,910 (Ravna Gora) and 3,325 (Vrbovsko) (Opći šematizam Katoličke crkve u Jugoslaviji, ed. Krunoslav Draganović, Sarajevo, 1939, pp. 128, 130, 131 and 132).
[14] The number of baptisms that Horžić performed in Vrbovsko in 1943 and 1944 is not published. In 1943, he baptized at least 16 children: one in Kraljevica, eleven in Mrkopalj, and four in Ravna Gora (Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 72, 94–95 and 98); they were all legitimate. In 1944, he baptized at least 38 children: five in Mrkopalj and 33 in Ravna Gora (ibid., pp. 135–140); five of them are children of single mothers. In total, it is publicly available that he administered 54 baptisms in a year and a half.
[15] Nedjelja (Zagreb), 9/1937, nr. 15, p. 6; Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 31.
[16] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 63.
[17] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 81.
[18] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 85–89, 91, 93, 220 and 221.
[19] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 63, 64, 241, 242.
[20] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 74.
[21] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 232.
[22] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 18 and 80.
[23] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, p. 123–124.
[24] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 65–71, 85–94 and 218–224.
[25] Blessed Alojzije Stepinac wrote about him, then Minister of the Interior in Zagreb, on 27 May 1946, to Bishop Joseph Patrick Hurley: “Minister Krajačić (Minister of the Interior at Zagreb)… hates the Church and priests so much. Those who knew him well say that he had already killed another young man at the age of 14. Then he fled and became a communist. In Spain (the minister himself told one of his friends) during the civil war he killed many priests with his own hand” (Juraj Batelja, Blaženi Alojzije Stepinac – svjedok Evanđelja ljubavi: Knjiga 3. Dokumenti II, Zagreb, 2010, nr. 599, p. 360, passage 8: “mitto Tibi notitiam de ministro Krajačić (ministre des affaires interieurs à Zagreb) qui tam odit Ecclesiam et sacerdotes speciatim. Dicunt, qui illum bene norunt, se iam in aetate 14 annorum occidisse alium iuvenem. Deinde aufugit, communista factus est. In Hispania (ipse minister narrabat amico suo aliquo) in bello civili multos sacerdotes ipse occidit propria manu”).
[26] Croatian State Archives, HR HDA 1491/OZNA 1.4.1. Lists of heads of district and district intelligence centers and authorized representatives of Ozna in the People’s Republic of Croatia, pp. 37, 38, 127, 128, 281, and 284; 1491/OZNA 2.49.17. Book of dispatches XI Corps, 14 November 1944, p. 719; Mato Rajković, Sjećanja na Oznu, 3rd continuation, Večernji list (Zagreb), 8 May 1979, p. 21; Zdenko Radelić, Obavještajni centri, Ozna i Udba u Hrvatskoj (1942.–1954.) Kadrovi, Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 2019, p. 163 (Eduard Edo Cenčić), 190 (Luka Čemeljić), 378–379 (Rade Ivošević Crni), 395 (Božidar Božo Jauk), 485–486 (Ivan Stevo Krajačić), 499 (Mila Krznarić), 534–535 (Vlado Lončar), 598 (Branko Matić), 705 (Marijan Ofak), 741 (Rade Peleš), 770–771 (Josip Pleše Misan), 821 (Mata Rajković), 898 (Franjo Starčević), 950 (Rafael Šneperger), 1016 (Vlado Valenčić), 1006 (Vojo Ugarković) and 1067–1068 (Dmitar Vukelić Pimić).
[27] The sources were posted in the original in an article in Croatian on the Vjera i djela portal on 27 January 2025.
[28] “Reaction” is a label used in communist jargon to describe all opponents of communist rule.
[29] Croatian State Archives, HR-HDA-1831-OK KPH za Gorski Kotar, box 3, Minutes from the meeting of the OK KPH for Gorski Kotar, without number or date, probably the second half of February 1944, pp. 1, 2 and 3; Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 109 and 247.
[30] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 174–178.
[31] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 56 and 239.
[32] Ante Zovko, Stjepan Horžić, Mrkopalj, 2025, pp. 167, 176, 177, 192, 199 and 200.
[33] Rajmund Kupareo, Na rijekama, Madrid, 1948, p. 63; Rajmund Kupareo, Svjetloznak, Varaždinske Toplice, 1994, p. 186.