400 YEARS OF THE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH (C)

The Greek Catholic Church in Croatia is a church of its own laws (sui iuris). Already its name suggests that it is a catholic church of Greek or better to say Byzantine or Byzantine-Slavic ritual. It makes part of the Catholic Church in Croatia as well as the part of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church presided by the first among priests, the Roman pope - presently Pope Benedict XVI, as its spiritual shepherd.
The history of the Greek Catholic Church in our region begins in 1611 when the ununified Wallach bishop Simeon Vratanja, with the seat in Marča near Kloštar-Ivanić, professed catholic faith in Rome and recognised the Roman pope as the supreme Church authority. By that act he restored the church unity with the apostolic seat, as it existed in the first millennium. In history the church event is known under the name of the Union of Marča. After the locality of Marča also the newly founded eparchy was named - the Eparchy of Marča.
On the Marča bishop’s throne a succession of 17 bishops followed one another. The seventh Bishop of Marča, Gabriel Mijakić, was arrested as collaborator of the Croatian viceroy Petar Zrinski in the fight for free Croatia and sentenced to several years of imprisonment, where he also died. His successor Pavao Zorčić founded in 1681 in Zagreb in the Upper Town the Greek Catholic Seminary. The bishops of Marča Gabriel Palković and Bazilije Božičković with their diligent  shepherd’s work managed to preserve the Greek Catholics of Žumberak region within the lap of the Catholic Church.
In 1739 the opponents of the church unity in Croatia set on fire the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Marča and the monastery. Since that date and for the next 40 years the bishops of Marča will have their seat in Pribić. To replace Marča in 1777 a new bishopric with the seat in Križevci was founded for the Greek Catholics. To the constitution of the Bishopric of Križevci, apart from the Greek Catholics − Croats as inheritors of the Bishopric of Marča, joined also Rusyns in Bačka region and in 1924 also the Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Bosnia as well as Macedonians. After the breakup of Yugoslavia and upon establishment of new states in its territory, the Greek Catholics in Macedonia become in 2001 an independent church unit and the same occurred with the Greek Catholics in Serbia in 2003. Within the constitution of the Bishopric of Križevci there remained all Greek Catholics in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.
 The jubilee year - the 400^th anniversary of the renewal of church unity in Croatia, the Greek Catholic Church i.e. the Eparchy of Križevci began to celebrate on 19 November 2011 and the celebration will end on November, 25^th this year. On this occasion the present bishop of Križevci, Nikola Kekić, started the restoration of the cathedral and residence in Križevci, the Memory Church of the Annunciation in Pribić, the Church of the Protecting Veil of the Most Holy Mother of God in Kričke and the building of the Memory Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel in Marča. Croatian Post also joined this great anniversary by  issuing the commemorative stamp.
 
Nikola Kekić