Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 15 April 1919
- Franjo Kuharić was born in the area which is today called "Valley of the Cardinals". The Blessed Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac was born in nearby Brezarić.
The Croatian Cardinal Franjo Kuharić was born on this day in the village of Upper Pribic near Krasic. The region is now called the “Valley of the Cardinals” (Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac was born in nearby Brezarić).
It is interesting to note that Kuharić was the 13th, youngest child in the family. He was educated at the Classical High School in Zagreb, and graduated Theology in the same city.
He was a pastor in several Croatian parishes. There were apparently two assassination attempts on him: in 1947 in Rakov Potok and in 1948 in Jakovlja. He was also interrogated by the UDBA, the Yugoslav secred police.
Franjo Kuharić became Bishop in 1964 and the archbishop of Zagreb in 1970.
He was declared Cardinal in 1983, with the title of S. Girolamo dei Croati (St. Jerome of the Croats), in honor of the Croatian St. Jerome church in Rome. He was known as a humanitarian, and during the war he stated “If someone demolishes your house, you preserve his. If someone kills your father, you don’t kill his”.
