FAMOUS CROATS 2005 - DR. JOSIP BUTURAC (1905 - 1993)

Dr.Josip Buturac, historian, archivist and ecclesiastical writer (born in Grabarje near Požega, November 14, 1905 – died in Lovrečina near Vrbovec, October 5, 1993). He attended elementary school in Ruševo, and went to secondary school in Požega, Travnik and finally Zagreb where he graduated from the archdiocesan seminary. He completed his studies of theology in Zagreb which he then continued with the study of history at the historical university of the Papal University in Rome, the famous Pontificia universitas Gregoriana, and at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb he attended courses in Croatian history and ethnology. His doctoral thesis that he defended in 1944 was entitled “The Catholic Church in Slavonia at the Time of the Turkish Rule”. He first served as chaplain in Kutina afterwards to be parish priest in Čaglić and then catechist in Zagreb. He then went to work as archivist at the archbishopric archive and the ordinariate in Zagreb from 1939 to 1941. Until his retirement he worked in the State Archive in Zagreb where he was in charge of preserving and professional processing of the older part of the Chapter archive. In his historical works Dr. Josip Buturac treated themes from ecclesiastical and cultural history, studying historic-geographic, toponymical, migrational and other demographic occurrences in the past, particularly issues regarding birth-rate and death-rate in specific regions. Outstanding among works from this area is his comprehensive work “The Population of Požega and its Surroundings from 1700 to 1967”, (Zagreb 1967). His most numerous works are those where he treated chapters from the 17th to the middle of the 19th century, mostly based on the so far unpublished archival materials. He was the first one in this country to write professionally about problems of archive administration and created our archivist terminology in the following works: “Archivist Reader” (Zagreb 1950), “From the History of the Written Document” (Zagreb, 1966), “The History of the Management of Religious Organizations in Croatia from the 10th to the 20th century”, (Zagreb, 1970). In his articles he published inventories of specific archives and offered instructions about their preservation, sorting out and usage. As senior archivist he carried out supervisory service, checking on the professional enhancement of archive employees all over Croatia. He also participated in the peace negotiations with the Hungarians after which they returned about a thousand documents to Croatia in 1958. His historical work, particularly the one regarding ecclesiastical history is extremely rich. The value of this historical work mostly relies on the fact that the works Buturac produced are mostly based on the so far unpublished material. First and foremost, Buturac was the historian of the Zagreb bishopric, i.e. archbishopric, its bishops and archbishops (e.g. the biography of Bishop Augustin Kažotić).He also wrote about the history of friars in Croatia, the Franciscans, Templars, Paulists, Hospitalers, Benedictines and Jesuits. He also treated the history of ecclesiastical organizations and associations in Croatia (Assembly of the spiritual youth in Zagreb, the Zagreb seminary, the Čazma Chapter, St.Cyril and Methodius’ Croatian literary society). “The Catholic Church in Slavonia at the Time of the Turkish Rule” belongs to his principal works (Zagreb, 1970). Though Buturac predominately limited his works to the research of the ecclesiastical past in northern Croatia, we can still consider him to be the historian of the entire Church in Croatia. As far back as 1944, he published in Zagreb, together with Krunoslav Draganović, “The history of the Church in Croatia”. Also in Zagreb he published in 1973, together with Antun Ivandija, “The History of the Catholic Church among the Croats”. What he chiefly wrote about was his native region of Požega. His first historical work, “Ruševo and its Surroundings” treated his immediate homeland. There is not a single historical document from the Požega region that he had not treated, nor is there a family from these parts whose name would not have been mentioned in one of his books. In the Požega Lexicon he treated some 200 entries, among them all the inhabited settlements of the Požega valley. Following the Požega area are the works about Vrbovec and its nearer surroundings, and he also treated Sisak and the surrounding area. Dr. Josip Buturac published a total of some 40 books and more than 550 bibliographic units, monographs, scientific treatises and contributions of a various range. In 1994, some works were published posthumously: “A Chronological List of Jastrebarsko and its Surroundings from 1237 to 1919”, “Written Documents of Požega and its Surroundings from 1210 to 1536”. In the same year, Matica Hrvatska from Zagreb published the book “Signs of Time” where we find the biography of Buturac and his important expertise articles from the period between 1932 and 1945. By his life and work Dr. Josip Buturac was a veritable GUARDIAN OF CROATIAN REMEMBRANCE.