Anton Mahnič
Anton Mahnič, also spelled Antun Mahnić in Croatian orthography, was a Slovene Roman Catholic bishop, theologian and philosopher, founder and the main leader of the Croatian Catholic movement.Biography
Mahnič was born in Kobdilj near Štanjel in the Austrian County of Gorizia and Gradisca. He finished theological studies in Vienna and then worked as a priest and a teacher in Gorizia. During this period, he became actively involved in the Slovene political life, criticising the liberal Catholic current within the Slovene national movement.
In 1896, he became Bishop of Krk before the First World War. After the war, Mahnić was persecuted during the Italian occupation, and he went to Zagreb, where he died.
Mahnić's main goal was defending and promoting Catholic faith and its moral principles in Croatian public and social life, which were endangered by liberalization and secularization. Also important issue for him was spiritual and intellectual education of the youth.
