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The Jesuit Bona Mors Confraternities in Croatia

The great revival of interest in the theme of ars moriendi in the early 17th century aimed to promote the Tridentine concept of bona vita, a life based on the Sacraments, especially frequent Communion, so a good death – and salvation – would inevitably follow. The rules and the programme of the Confraternity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Dying on the Cross and of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, His Sorrowful Mother, also called the Bona Mors Confraternity – founded in 1648 in Rome – were soon spread through its affiliates wherever the Jesuits settled. Eight Confraternities of Bona Mors within Jesuit colleges and residences were founded in Zagreb (1653), Rijeka (1656), Varaždin (1662), Dubrovnik (1670 or before), Osijek (1703), Požega (1704), Petrovaradin (1713.) and Belgrade (1726). Although the Croatian Jesuits were divided in two provinces – Dubrovnik was part of the Roman Province, and all the other colleges and residences were part of the Austrian Province – they shared specific devotional goals. Bona Mors spirituality became an exceptionally efficient apparatus for Jesuit pastoral endeavours and deeply marked the spiritual life and artistic heritage of the communities and regions. Although the Bona Mors were not the only confraternities founded by the Jesuits, they – together with diocesan priests and other religious orders – provided invaluable support in their efforts to re- Christianize Slavonia, Srijem and all parts of the region, including Požega, Osijek, Petrovaradin, Beograd, that remained under Ottoman rule until the late seventeenth century. In addition, The Jesuits aimed to renew the Catholic faith in communities exposed to Protestant ideology (e.g., the surroundings of Varaždin) or those that needed reinvigoration of devotion to the Sacraments (Zagreb) and discipline (Rijeka). Archival sources and historians of the Jesuit order, especially the preeminent Miroslav Vanino, mention treasuries of the Bona Mors confraternities in Croatia. Unfortunately, most of these liturgical furnishings and works of art are lost or very fragmented due to the suppression of the Jesuit Order (1773) and subsequent Josephine and Napoleonic reforms in the last decades of the 18th and the first decade of 19th century. Nonetheless, what remains deserves fresh analysis, such as the altars of the Holy Cross erected in Varaždin (1762) and Petrovaradin (1773), the Miraculous Crucifix (13th century) on the high altar by Pasqualin Lazzarini (1711-1712 ; 1717) in Rijeka, and the enrolment certificates (Zagreb, Varaždin, Požega, Osijek) and other engraved images (Rijeka) that were widely distributed among the confreres. The Bona Mors confraternities played an important role in shaping the Tridentine Catholicism in Croatia. They bear witness to local traditions and different contexts, but even more they reveal the Jesuits’ remarkable ability to promote unifying devotions and strategies of fidelity to the Supreme Pontiff and Rome, frequent Communion and encouraging the Tridentine sacramental bona vita in general.

Bona Mors, Confraternities, Jesuits, Tridentine Catholicism, Croatia

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