Daniel Vocatius
Daniel Vocatius, sometimes Vocensis, Vocacensis or Vocacio was a Croat prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Duvno from 1551 to 1575 and the bishop of Roman Catholic [Diocese of Muro Lucano|Muro Lucano] from 1575 to his death in 1577.
A native of Split in present-day Croatia, Vocatius was appointed the bishop of Duvno in the Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1551, on the request of the local populace. At the same time, he was given the administration over the neighbouring Diocese of Makarska, which included the territory in the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Vocatius pastored his dioceses and was persecuted by the Ottoman authorities, who caught him and imprisoned him in 1565. After being ransomed by the Bosnian Franciscans, he continued to administer his dioceses from Split and Omiš, but eventually escaped to Spain. In 1575, for his sufferings under the Ottomans and freeing around 500 Catholics of Dalmatia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman captivity, he was given the new Diocese of Muro Lucano in southern Italy, where he died in 1577.
Origin
Daniel Vocatius, sometimes spelled as Vocensis, Vocacensis or Vocacio, was a native of Split in present-day Croatia. He was a Conventual Franciscan friar. There are several opinions on his origin. Franciscan historian Karlo Jurišić suggested that he was surnamed Glasnović, while Bishop Ratko Perić said it might be either Glasnović or Glasnić. Marijan Žugaj, a Franciscan historian, said that he might be a member of the Vukčić-Hrvatinić family or a grandson of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača.Bishop of Duvno
On a formal request from the knyazs of Duvno, Grgur Lučić and Pavao Vuković, who was Vocatius' first cousin, according to Žugaj, their sons and the Duvno's populace, but in reality on the requests of the Bosnian Franciscans, Pope Julius II appointed Vocatius as the bishop of Duvno on 2 December 1551. He was consecrated in Rome by Cardinal Bernardino Maffei in late 1551 or early 1552. Daniele Ferlati suggested that at the same time, Vocatius was given the administration over the Diocese of Makarska.At the end of 1551 or in early 1552, Vocatius brought four Illyrian priests to appoint them as parish priests in the diocese to have clergy under his direct jurisdiction. However, the Bosnian Franciscans, who considered they had an exclusive right to pastorize the area, opposed this, and the diocesan priests were sent back. Having encountered difficulties in his diocese, in September 1553, Vocatius went to Naples, where the Franciscan provincial Angelus Aversani wrote a recommendation to King Ferdinand I to transfer him somewhere else if necessary. Pope Paul IV personally ordered an investigation into accusations against Vocatius for his alleged double standard towards the Ottomans and his animosity towards the Franciscans. The investigation was led by the canons of the Archdiocese of Split, Frano Rosano and Bernardin Stanković. The investigation ended with the dismissal of the accusations against Vocatius.
In 1558, Vocatius was in Split, where he granted his house, which he had bought before his episcopacy, to his sister for a debt of 400 he owed to her husband. From this, Žugaj concluded that since he owned a house as a friar, Vocatius was a Conventual Franciscan, who could own property, unlike Observant Francsicans.
During Vocatius' pastoral visit to the Catholics in Herzegovina in 1563, the Ottoman authorities chased him down, so he hid in Mostar and Ljubuški. However, he was caught near Korčula and thrown into a prison in Vrgorac. Eventually, the Franciscans managed to ransom him in 1565. The Ottomans demolished Franciscan friaries in Mostar and Ljubuški as a punishment for hiding the bishop and to prevent the clergy to cooperate with the enemy. The friaries haven't been renovated ever since. Mandić wrote that Vocatius occasionally visited the dioceses until the outbreak of the Ottoman–Venetian War in 1570, which devastated the Dalmatian region and the neighbouring territory of the dioceses of Duvno and Makarska. Since the terror he suffered from the Ottomans in 1565, Vocatius did not reside on the territory of his dioceses, but first in Split and later in Omiš.