Paškal Buconjić (2 April 1834 – 8 December 1910) was Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan and a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of Mostar-Duvno from 1881 to 1910, as the apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1890 to 1910, as the apostolic vicar of Herzegovina from 1880 to 1881, and as custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina between 1874 and 1879.
Buconjić, who was born in Drinovci, Herzegovina, during the Ottoman rule, joined the Franciscans in 1851. After a year of novitiate, he became a member of the newly established Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina in 1852. He attended theological studies in Ferrara, at the time in Austrian Empire, and was ordained a priest there in 1856. Buconjić then lectured at Antonianum in Rome between 1860 and 1866, when he returned to Herzegovina, where he lectured at the seminary of the Franciscan friary in Široki Brijeg. Buconjić became a chaplain in 1871 and 1873, a parish priest in Drinovci. He was elected Custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina in 1874, a position he held until 1879. During the Herzegovina Uprising of 1875–1877, Buconjić, with Bishop Anđeo Kraljević helped to pacify the Catholic population and supported the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. In 1875, Buconjić published a booklet titled "The Main Reasons for the Uprising of the Christian Population in Herzegovina" and sent it to the representatives of several European countries, which raised awareness among the European powers regarding the position of Christians. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, it was decided that Austria-Hungary would occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. Buconjić was important in Croatian politics during the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 1880, after the Austrian-Hungarian occupation, Buconjić was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Herzegovina and a titular bishop of Magydus and was consecrated in Zagreb the same year. With the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy in 1881, Buconjić was appointed the first Bishop of the newly established Diocese Mostar-Duvno. As a bishop, he favoured his Franciscan Custody over the interests of the diocese. He tried to postpone the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy until 1889, when Pope Leo XIII issued Decisia allowing Franciscans to retain some parishes and designating others to the diocesan clergy. The Franciscans largely ignored Decisia. In 1890, the Diocese of Trebinje-Mrkan, to whose northern and north-eastern parts Bishop Paškal pretended, was exempted from the administration of Bishop of Dubrovnik and was given to Bishop of Mostar-Duvno for administration; after this, the whole of Herzegovina was under Buconjić's jurisdiction. Buconjić died in Mostar on 8 December 1910 and was buried in the Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Mostar. He was succeeded in his post by Alojzije Mišić in 1912.
Early life
Paškal Buconjić was born in Drinovci near Grude, Herzegovina, which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire, to father Stjepan and mother Vida (). Buconjić's family originated in Ošlje near Ston and were known as Vodopić, while their family name was translated as Bevillacqua in Italian. Part of that family moved to Neum, where Buconjić's father, Stjepan, was born. After entering into a conflict with the local Ottoman governor, Stjepan fled to Mostar and worked for some families there. He later traded in livestock and bought land in Drinovci, where he married Vida Šimić. They had six sons and five daughters. Buconjić was christened as Stjepan on 16 August 1834 in Slivno, where Christians had fled due to inter-Muslim violence during the Bosnian uprising.
In January 1846, his father took him to Franciscans in Čerigaj for education and to become a friar, where the Herzegovinian Franciscans moved in an attempt to establish their own Custody and separate from the Franciscan Province of Bosnia. Buconjić remained in Čerigaj until 1849, when the Franciscans built the first wing of the friary in Široki Brijeg, where he moved with the rest of the friars. Buconjić became a friar on 13 October 1851. After a year in the novitiate, he took solemn vows before Custos Anđeo Kraljević on 10 November 1852 and changed his name to Paškal.
Education and professorship in Italy
By Kraljević's decision, Buconjić continued his education at the Franciscan school in Ferrara, at the time under the control of the Austrian Empire. After finishing his studies, Buconjić was ordained a priest there on 21 December 1856. He celebrated his first mass on Christmas. While in Ferrara, under the influence of the pro-Austrian Croat military officers, Buconjić became a supporter of the Croatian cause and the Austrian monarchy. After finishing his studies, Buconjić wanted to return to Herzegovina. However, the heads of the Custody opposed his decision and wanted him to become a lecturer or professor. Even General of the Franciscan Order Bernardino Trionfetti intervened to persuade him.
On 18 December 1858, Buconjić passed the professor exam in Bologne, where he discussed natural law and was awarded the highest grades. When Trionfetti saw his grades, he invited Buconjić to Rome to lecture at Antonianum, where Buconjić was appointed professor on 8 June 1860. While lecturing in Rome, Buconjić connected with the members of the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome, then a student at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum Josip Stadler, who would become his good friend (and who later become the archbishop of Vrhbosna) as well as Cardinal Alessandro Barnabò, the Prefect of the Propaganda, which would influence his later life and help him become a bishop.
Buconjić's lecturing drafts during his tenure were not preserved, but the speech he gave before the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome was published under the title "Speech on the Occasion of the Millennial Celebration of the SS Slavic Apostles Cyril and Methodius" in 1863.
Apostolic Vicar of Herzegovina Rafael Barišić died on 14 August 1863, and many saw the young Buconjić as his successor. However, Buconjić rejected such a possibility. After Bosnian Franciscans tried to take the vacant position for one of their own and thus reclaim the Herzegovinian Custody, Buconjić acted to prevent them. He visited Pope Pius IX at his residence in Castel Gandolfo and asked him to appoint a Herzegovinian Franciscan as the apostolic vicar. The Pope conceded and appointed Kraljević the titular bishop of Motella and apostolic vicar of Herzegovina.
Custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina
After several requests to return to Herzegovina, Buconjić's appeals were accepted. He lectured in Rome until 20 December 1866, when he returned to the Franciscan friary in Široki Brijeg to teach dogma and morals. In 1871, he gained the highest Franciscan academic title of jubilee lecturer. The Custody's administration decided already in 1865 to establish new parishes, including the one in Buconjić's home village, Drinovci. Buconjić helped them find a lot to construct a new parochial residence. In 1871, Drinovci became at first a chaplaincy, while Buconjić was named its chaplain, and in 1873, it was elevated to the status of a parish, with Buconjić as its first parish priest. While in Drinovci, Buconjić finished the construction of the parochial residence and helped to construct a parochial church. Buconjić was elected Custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina on 31 May 1874 for a three-year term.
Herzegovina uprising
In April 1875, during the turmoil between Christians and the Ottoman authorities in Herzegovina, Austrian-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph visited neighbouring Dalmatia, where he received two Franciscan delegations in Imotski on 24 April and in Vrgorac the next day. Buconjić led the delegation of nine Franciscans in Imotski and presented the emperor with a memorandum about the hardships of Christians in Herzegovina. On that occasion, the emperor decorated him with the Commander's Star of the Order of Franz Joseph. The Ottoman authorities viewed this as an act of treason, and Friar Petar Bakula learned of their intentions to kill Buconjić and two other friars, Anđeo Ćurić and Lovro Karaula. Buconjić became suspicious of the Ottoman authorities, and for safety, he decided to move his residence from Široki Brijeg to the Franciscan friary in Humac near Ljubuški, so he could be closer to Dalmatia for escape. Karaula was eventually murdered on 20 July 1875.
In June 1875, Christians started the Herzegovina uprising; Catholics of Gabela, led by Ivan Musić—who was Kraljević's nephew—were the first to rebel. The Ottoman authorities asked Kraljević to help them to pacify the rebels, but this bid failed, and the Ottoman authorities allowed foreign powers to find a peaceful solution. The representatives of the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy and France arrived in Mostar. Buconjić issued a booklet in Italian called "The Main Reasons for the Uprising of the Christian Population in Herzegovina" and gave it to six foreign consuls. In this booklet, Buconjić stated that high taxes were the main factor in the uprising.
On 30 June 1876, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, requesting the annexation of Bosnia to Serbia and Herzegovina to Montenegro. After finding Serbia and Montenegro had requested the annexation of these regions, Kraljević and Buconjić wrote to the Austrian-Hungarian authorities in July 1876 asking them not to allow this, stating Bosnia and Herzegovina should be annexed by Austria-Hungary— to whom the Catholics are connected by their "historical past, and many other moral and material interests"—if the Ottoman authorities must leave. The Austrian-Hungarian public and authorities received the protestation very positively. Herzegovinian Franciscans, led by Kraljević, also sent a letter to the Ottoman government fiercely opposing this request. Kraljević and Buconjić helped pacify the Catholics who participated in the uprising because the Catholic leadership viewed the unrest in Herzegovina as a potential struggle for the annexation of these regions to Serbia and Montenegro, respectively. They were successful in their mission; on 19 February 1877, Kraljević informed the Propaganda in Rome that the Catholics of Herzegovina enjoyed "peace and rest". Meanwhile, the uprising spread to the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina and culminated with the Russo-Turkish War that ended with the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878.
During Buconjić's tenure as Custos, the theological education and novitiate were transferred from Široki Brijeg to Humac. On 1 September 1875, Buconjić asked the General Minister of the Franciscan Order to proclaim the seminary a friary approved on 5 March 1876.
Conflict with Bishop Kraljević
The Franciscans of Herzegovina were on bad terms with Bishop Kraljević, claiming he did not give them enough of the collected alms for the construction of the friary in Humac. The conflict between the bishop and the Franciscans reached its peak during Buconjić's tenure because Franciscans controlled all of the parishes in Herzegovina while the bishop, even though a Franciscan himself, wanted to have diocesan clergy at his disposal. An anonymous letter was sent to Emperor Franz Joseph claiming the bishop was giving donations sent to him by Austria-Hungary to the Ottomans and accusing him of being a turkophile. The Franciscan Custody barred itself from this letter.