Humac, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Known in some circles as the place where the famous Humačka Tablet was found, I had never heard of Humac before reading up on the area.

When I read about the Franciscan monastery with its church dedicated to St Anthony of Padua, it became a must-stop on Sunday morning. I’ve been bugging St Anthony for months to find a bracelet for me, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to light a candle and make yet another entreaty.

Home to the country’s oldest museum, it looks like a town but seems to be classed as a village.

The Museum in Humac, located within the Franciscan Monastery of St. Anthony of Padua just 2 km southwest of Ljubuški, is the oldest museum in Bosnia and Herzegovina — founded in 1884 thanks to the vision and dedication of Friar Anđel Nuić. Through three collections — prehistoric, ancient and medieval — the museum takes visitors on a journey through nearly 16,000 years of human presence in this area, from the Paleolithic to the Ottoman era.

The monastery is impressive.

The old church itself dates to the 19th century: its foundation stone was blessed in 1868, and its first bells rang in January 1869. It was consecrated in 1903.

Claudius Kautz’s Baroque altar is even older still, dating to 1725. Apparently, it was brought to Humac from Zagreb in 1960. Portions of the original decoration were covered with 24-carat gold leaf/gilding. It’s a beautiful church, with a totally different feel from the more modern one next door.

The stained glass windows of St Francis and St Anthony by Virgilije (Virgil) Nevjestić (1935–2009) are a lovely touch. Nevjestić was a major Croatian/Bosnian-Herzegovinian graphic artist and painter who spent most of his career in Paris. His art is particularly known for its dreamlike, symbolic, sometimes surreal imagery.

At Mass, I did something I rarely do. I sat in the second row from the top. I wanted a better view of the altar.

In 2008, the tomb of St Anthony in the Basilica in Padua was opened, and some of his remains were distributed as first class relics. A portion of his body is encased in the altar in Humac. Designed and made by the academic sculptor Ilija Skočibušić, from Tomislavgrad, it fascinated me.

A work of art has succeeded the moment it has a soul, when it has emotion in it, and not when it is just matter arranged symmetrically. A work of art has succeeded when it has one element, one vibration that brings that other side, that other dimension into it. The greatest defeat for a work of art is when people pass by it indifferently.

The Mass wasn’t in English, so I had time to meditate and really appreciate it. Which, apparently, is the purpose. Job done.

The Humac Franciscans were deliberately developing the new church as a place where art would contribute to prayer and contemplation. The guardian, Fr Dario Dodig, specifically described the aim as giving the new church an artistic character through which people could pray and be inspired.

Skočibušić explains that he divided the altar into three distinct sections (text adapted):

At the centre is a substantial stone element, on which is carved a zoomorphic representation of the Lamb of God (Jaganjac Božji). This is the theological centre of the entire composition: Christ as the sacrificial Lamb.

On the left is a large crowd, executed in aluminium, led by St Nicholas Tavelić, a Franciscan friar and missionary who was martyred in Jerusalem in 1391 and canonised in 1970. Skočibušić says this group represents the Bosnian/Croatian Christian men and women who suffered martyrdom during the period of Ottoman rule.

The corresponding group on the right is again made in aluminium, this time led by Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, a Croatian cardinal and Archbishop of Zagreb who was persecuted by the communist authorities after WWII and died in 1960. He represents Christians who were persecuted, tortured and killed during and after the Second World War.

The young friar who said Mass was flanked by 13 much younger lads. I read that this year, the seminary admitted 10 new students, and I imagine these were they alongside three older lads who did the readings. When it came to communion, older chaps again appeared on the altar. The older ones had three knots in their cingulum, the white cord around their waist. The younger ones didn’t, showing that they had yet to take their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

I counted 20, but I could have missed some. All young men. All dedicating their lives to God.

There were three masses that day: 7 am, 9 am, and 11 am. We were at the 9 am. The church was full, and himself reckoned some 300 or so were gathered outside.

I wrote about how I couldn’t get past the commercialism of Medjugorje. This was a completely different experience. The deliberate connection between art and God is fascinating.

The Franciscans have made the new church deliberately artistic, with the stated intention that works of art should help people pray and receive inspiration, and that God might “speak” through the artworks.

Now, St Anthony… about that bracelet…

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