Bishop Strossmayer and Mme. Olga Novikov: Two Unpublished Letters, 1879

Abstract

During the Eastern Crisis of 1876-78, and the years preceding the victory of W. E. Gladstone and the British Liberal party in the Midlothian general election in April 1880, the renowned Slavophile and Croatian patriot Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Roman Catholic bishop of Diakovo, attempted with some success directly and indirectly to enlist Gladstone's support for South Slav nationalist aspirations. Bishop Strossmayer was an ardent advocate of the liberation of the South Slavs from Austrian, Magyar, and Turkish rule, a vocal partisan of South Slav unity, and, at times, a thorn in the side of the Vatican. As the long-time bishop of a large diocese which embraced Slavonia and parts of Bosnia and Serbia, he labored for over fifty years to advance the national traditions and culture of the South Slavs and to promote an awareness among the South Slavs of their common ethnic and cultural origins. Strossmayer achieved notoriety and won the close friendship of Lord Acton and Dr. Johann von Dollinger by his opposition to the Dogma of Papal Infallibility in the Vatican Council of 1869-70 and attracted the attention of Gladstone and many Anglican clerics by his efforts to effect the reconciliation and reunion of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He was also interested in promoting the union of the Western and Eastern churches as a device to remove the religious rivalry which hindered the unification of the South Slavs and persevered in his endeavors to facilitate spiritual unity among the Balkan Slavs, even though these efforts alienated many of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic clergy.