Josip Juraj Strossmayer was born on February 4, 1815, in Osijek, where his great-grandfather from Upper Austria settled due to military service. His father was a horse trader, although he couldn’t read or write, and his mother was a gentle and devout woman. The bishop himself wrote: “Thank God that my mother was able to raise me with tender freedom, yet in true prudence.” He attended elementary school and high school in his hometown of Osijek, and then, at his mother’s request, he went to the Diocesan Seminary in Đakovo, and later to the central seminary in Pest as the best student. Here he came under the wing of the famous Slovak poet and politician Jan Kollár, who had previously admitted Ljudevit Gaj and also gathered young Croatian seminarians, to whom he conveyed the idea that Slavdom should develop within the four great literatures: Czech, Polish, Russian, and Illyrian.
In 1834, he obtained a doctorate in philosophy, but due to his desire for further education, he went to Augustineum in Vienna, where he successfully passed his dissertation. In 1842, he obtained a doctorate in theology and became a professor of canon law at the University of Vienna.
The Đakovo Cathedral of St. Peter
Political and cultural engagement
Strossmayer was highly prominent in the political field. He advocated for the cultural and political convergence of Slavic nations. He advocated for the introduction of the Croatian language in schools and administration, opposed the Germanization and Magyarization of Croatia and all other countries within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. His fight for the integrity and contemporaneity of Croatia, his work on South Slavic mutualism, are closely connected to the revival of all Slavic nations based on the spiritual heritage of St. Cyril and Methodius.
Governed by the principle of “enlightenment towards freedom,” Strossmayer attached great importance to cultural activities. In 1866, he established the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (now HAZU) and had the magnificent Academy Palace built. It was mainly the work of Croats. But other nations also participated: Serbs, Slovenes, Czechs, Russians, Poles. Aware of the importance of a good library within the Academy, he contributed a significant amount of money to purchase the famous library of Ivan Kukuljević, bought the collection of Mihanović, the archive of the Keglević Counts, the Lopašić archive, acquired manuscripts of Katančić, Marulić, etc. He adds to the Academy another extremely important institution – an art gallery as a precursor to the art academy. His knowledge of art was not superficial or amateurish, but based on long and persistent study. Travel notes are a source and confirmation of how much Strossmayer appreciated the value of art galleries and the artworks within them. In 1890, he writes: “My friend! The eternal word of God, becoming human, has become a vine, and the nations of this world are all branches, which only live the truth and bear fruit as long as they remain in the vine – once disconnected from it, they wither and are thrown into the fire. This is the essence and core of the entire history of human kind.”
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Academy Palace
Around his hospitable table, for fifty years, sat undoubtedly the enlightened sons of all European nations. Not one of them ever left without admiring his lively and witty conversation. When he began to speak… What kind of speech he had, he would bow his head, his face would wrinkle and show inflammation, as if in pain. His voice would be quiet and weak, as if he would whisper. As his speech progressed, so did his voice and his face became filled. (…) The bishop was ecstatic in every solemn speech. “When I speak,” he once said about himself, “it’s as if I’m not speaking, but that some higher power is speaking through me. And when I speak Croatian, Latin, and German, I only think in that language.” (…) He hardly ever spoke about the past, which is something old people usually like to do.
Strossmayer died on May 8, 1905, after a brief illness, at the age of 91. In the book History of Croatian Literature, Ivo Frangeš writes: “If Venice, according to legend, rests on the oak trees of Velebit, then modern Croatian culture undoubtedly lies on Strossmayer’s Slavonian oaks.”
Excerpts from Strossmayer’s speeches and sermons
…among countless stars, leaves of the forest, and grains of sand, there is one star… completely equal to another, there is not a single leaf completely identical to another: there is not a single grain completely identical to another. There are not two human beings in the world who would be completely identical to each other in face and character, in spirit and heart; and the difference between angels and angels is the same divine grace, although they originate from the same Holy Spirit, they are diverse. And in this it is precisely shown that the desire was for the bond of love in human society to be diverse, as one depends on the other in many ways, one replaces the other in many ways… Isn’t it a mere gift of God that you are distinguished and exalted? If you are great in honor, but have no inner worth, you are a shell without a core, a husk without a grain, a light without warmth; as soon as your place in the state is excellent, your responsibility before God and people is stricter: dignity is a burden that you assume only to sacrifice yourself more for the good of your fellow citizens in love, and to serve them in truth; although it seems like you dominate over them, and that according to the appearance of the one who said from himself came here to be served and courted, but to serve and court. This is the equality alongside holy faith, without which there is no harmony, no love, no blessings.
J. J. Strossmayer, Speeches, Slavonia, Vinkovci, 1994.
As for freedom, it is true that man is created for freedom; it is true that slavery does not agree with the dignity of human nature; it is true that self-violence against one’s fellow man is a sin; (…) it is true that there is no talk of virtue and merit without free will…
Those, ladies and gentlemen, who brought us into this world and raised us, gave us a physical body and sustained our physical life, and therefore they are worthy of eternal recognition and eternal gratitude; those who provide us with means for higher intellectual education give us a higher life that is so much more valuable than the first, as the sky is more valuable than the earth, the spirit than the body, spiritual goods than material wealth. These are the spiritual parents to whom we can never give enough recognition, we can never express enough gratitude.
Work is the dearest prayer to God, and I There is nothing more beautiful and pleasing to God’s eyes than when a hardworking person on their field looks up to the sky and fervently cries out: “God, bless my labor and my work!” A lazy and negligent people sooner or later become strangers in their own land, where their ancestors once ruled.
Athens was a small city, insignificant in terms of size, in ancient Greece. However, Athens and ancient Greece were celebrated throughout the world for their intellectual and moral achievements. Their glory will never fade as long as there are people on Earth who value intellectual wealth and spiritual treasures more than material possessions, which have no inherent value. Ancient Rome may have perished long ago, but the glory of old Rome will never perish. Even today, it is astonishing to behold the spirit of old Rome in the ruins and creations of the ancient Romans. The living old Rome still exists in the immortal products of their intellect and knowledge. The influence of the education of old Rome is still vividly felt in the revival and development of the human soul, and it will continue to be felt as long as the world exists. The purpose of every knowledge and skill is, first: to understand and conquer the eternal truth with one’s mind and heart; second: to make that eternal truth, which we have apprehended with our mind and heart, immutable by the unchanging law of our consciousness, and to carry it forth with a strong and courageous will on every occasion and opportunity in life.
…just as sun rays reach into infinite spaces without ever being separated from their source, so too does the eternal truth emanate from God, carrying His nature, never changing, never losing its power, never allowing itself to detach from its source. The world passes by, people change, but it always remains the same, forever new and old, forever eternal and unchanging… that is why the most important quality of our mind is to feel, with an inner instinct, the inherent connection that unites various truths into one, and to not rest until it unifies everything it knows and understands into a whole…
A wretched person and a true blind person is one who does not see God in nature, who does not see their own being and power, who does not understand love and goodness through nature. beautifully manifests…
A draft of the life and work of J.J. Strossmayer.