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The Most Famous

RELIGIOUS FIGURES from Croatia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Croatian Religious Figures. The pantheon dataset contains 2,238 Religious Figures, 15 of which were born in Croatia. This makes Croatia the birth place of the 33rd most number of Religious Figures behind Brazil and Sweden.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Croatian Religious Figures of all time. This list of famous Croatian Religious Figures is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Croatian Religious Figures.

Photo of Pope John IV

1. Pope John IV (600 - 642)

With an HPI of 68.30, Pope John IV is the most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 68 different languages on wikipedia.

Pope John IV (Latin: Ioannes IV; died 12 October 642) was the bishop of Rome from 24 December 640 to his death. His election followed a four-month vacancy. He wrote to the clergy of Ireland and Scotland to tell them of the mistakes they were making with regard to the time of keeping Easter and condemned Monothelitism as heresy. According to sacred tradition, he created the Catholic Church in Croatia with Abbot Martin.

Photo of Pope Caius

2. Pope Caius (250 - 296)

With an HPI of 66.67, Pope Caius is the 2nd most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 71 different languages.

Pope Caius (died 22 April 296), also called Gaius, was the bishop of Rome from 17 December 283 to his death in 296. Little information on Caius is available except that given by the Liber Pontificalis, which relies on a legendary account of the martyrdom of Susanna of Rome for its information. According to legend, Caius baptized the men and women who had been converted by Tiburtius (who is venerated with Susanna) and Castulus. His legend states that Caius took refuge in the catacombs of Rome and died a martyr.

Photo of Saint Marinus

3. Saint Marinus (275 - 366)

With an HPI of 66.55, Saint Marinus is the 3rd most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Marinus (; Italian: San Marino) was an Early Christian and the founder of a chapel and monastery in 301 from whose initial community the state of San Marino later grew.

Photo of Aloysius Stepinac

4. Aloysius Stepinac (1898 - 1960)

With an HPI of 63.71, Aloysius Stepinac is the 4th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Aloysius Viktor Stepinac (Croatian: Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a high-ranking Yugoslav Croat prelate of the Catholic Church. Made a cardinal in 1953, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his death, a period which included the fascist rule of the genocidal Ustaše regime with the support of the Axis powers from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. He was tried by the communist Yugoslav government after the war and convicted of treason and collaboration with the Ustaše regime. The trial was depicted in the West as a typical communist "show trial", and was described by The New York Times as biased against Stepinac. However, John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. was of the opinion that the trial was "carried out with proper legal procedure". In a verdict that polarized public opinion both in Yugoslavia and beyond, the Yugoslav authorities found him guilty on the charge of high treason (for collaboration with the Ustaše regime), as well as complicity in the forced conversions of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. Stepinac advised individual priests to admit Orthodox believers to the Catholic Church if their lives were in danger, such that this conversion had no validity, allowing them to return to their faith once the danger passed. Jozo Tomasevich notes that Stepinac and the Church were "willing to cooperate with the regime's forced conversions, provided the canonical rules were followed", when in fact the Ustaše ignored these rules, committing atrocities, including the mass killing of converts. Stepinac was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but served only five at Lepoglava before being released, with his movements confined to his home district of Krašić. In 1953 he was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Pius XII. He was unable to participate in the 1958 conclave due to government restrictions on his travel. On 10 February 1960, still confined to Krašić, Stepinac died of polycythemia, for which he had been receiving treatment for a number of years. On 3 October 1998, Pope John Paul II declared him a martyr and beatified him before 500,000 Croatians in Marija Bistrica near Zagreb. His record during World War II, conviction for treason, and subsequent beatification remain controversial. Some point to Stepinac's efforts to save individual Jews, while other's note that his public support of the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia gave it legitimacy, helping the Ustaše maintain power and commit genocides against Jews, Serbs and Roma. Criticism has also been levelled for Stepinac's failure to speak out publicly against the genocide of the Serbs, against forced conversions and the killing of 157 Orthodox priests and 5 bishops, among other Ustaše crimes against Serbs On 22 July 2016, the Zagreb County Court annulled his post-war conviction due to "gross violations of current and former fundamental principles of substantive and procedural criminal law". Pope Francis invited Serbian prelates to participate in canonization investigations, but in 2017 a joint commission was only able to agree that "[i]n the case of Cardinal Stepinac, the interpretations that were predominantly given by Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs remain divergent".

Photo of Margaret of Hungary

5. Margaret of Hungary (1242 - 1270)

With an HPI of 62.81, Margaret of Hungary is the 5th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Margaret of Hungary, OP (Margit in Hungarian; January 27, 1242 – January 18, 1270) was a Dominican nun and the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. She was the younger sister of Kinga of Poland (Kunegunda) and Yolanda of Poland and, through her father, the niece of the famed Elizabeth of Hungary.

Photo of Pavle, Serbian Patriarch

6. Pavle, Serbian Patriarch (1914 - 2009)

With an HPI of 57.24, Pavle, Serbian Patriarch is the 6th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Pavle (Serbian Cyrillic: Павле, Paul; 11 September 1914 – 15 November 2009) was the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1990 to his death. His full title was His Holiness the Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, and Serbian Patriarch Pavle. Before his death, he was the oldest living leader of an Eastern Orthodox church. Because of poor health, he spent his last years in the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, while his duties were carried out by Metropolitan Amfilohije.

Photo of Maximianus of Ravenna

7. Maximianus of Ravenna (499 - 556)

With an HPI of 55.98, Maximianus of Ravenna is the 7th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Maximianus of Ravenna, or Maximian (499 – February 22, 556; feast day formerly February 21) was bishop of Ravenna in Italy. Ravenna was then the capital of the Byzantine Empire's territories in Italy, and Maximianus's role may have included secular political functions.

Photo of Marko Krizin

8. Marko Krizin (1589 - 1619)

With an HPI of 54.77, Marko Krizin is the 8th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Marko Stjepan Krizin (c. 1589 – 7 September 1619), or Marko Križevčanin (Hungarian: Kőrösi Márk, English: Mark of Križevci) was a Croatian Roman Catholic priest, professor of theology and missionary, who was active in the 17th century. In the course of the struggle between Catholicism and Calvinism in the region then, he was executed for his faith. He has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, the third Croat to be so honored.

Photo of Marco Antonio de Dominis

9. Marco Antonio de Dominis (1560 - 1624)

With an HPI of 53.61, Marco Antonio de Dominis is the 9th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Marco Antonio de Dominis (Croatian: Markantun de Dominis; 1560 – 7 September 1624) was a Dalmatian ecclesiastic, archbishop of Split and Primate of Dalmatia and all Croatia, adjudged heretic of the Catholic faith, polymath and man of science.

Photo of Franjo Šeper

10. Franjo Šeper (1905 - 1981)

With an HPI of 53.43, Franjo Šeper is the 10th most famous Croatian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Franjo Šeper (2 October 1905 – 30 December 1981) was a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1968 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. Before that, he served as the Archbishop of Zagreb from 1960 to 1969.

People

Pantheon has 15 people classified as religious figures born between 250 and 1949. Of these 15, 1 (6.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living religious figures include Josip Bozanić. The most famous deceased religious figures include Pope John IV, Pope Caius, and Saint Marinus. As of April 2022, 3 new religious figures have been added to Pantheon including Maximianus of Ravenna, Nicholas Tavelic, and Augustin Kažotić.

Living Religious Figures

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Deceased Religious Figures

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Newly Added Religious Figures (2022)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Religious Figures were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 4 most globally memorable Religious Figures since 1700.

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