BIBLIA PAUPERUM U CRKVI SVETOG MATEJA APOSTOLA I EVANĐELISTA U ŠTITARU
BIBLIA PAUPERUM IN THE CHURCH OF ST. MATTHEW, THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST, IN ŠTITAR

Summary/Abstract: The church of St. Matthew in Štitar is a classic example of 19th-century neogothic sacral architecture. This type of architecture, built for locals, contains numerous depictions of biblical events. By emphasizing the aesthetic side of the depictions, the primary educational role of these frescoes is often forgotten. Most of the area’s inhabitants were illiterate at the time, a fact that becomes obvious due to the poor socio-economic conditions within the area in the 19thcentury. Another point that illustrates the educational function of these biblical depictions, is that the liturgy at the time was in Latin, an unintelligible language for the locals. Until 1969the language of liturgy was Latin. Frescoes made the foreign language of liturgy and the abstractcontents of the mass more understandable to the local inhabitants. By using qualitativemethods this paper aims to describe the educational dimension of these frescoes. Qualitativemethods used in this paper are mostly scientific literature and accounts given by interviewees. A survey was conducted in April and May 2024. Interviews conducted with locals are the key part of this paper. Their accounts show us their unfamiliarity with the content of the church frescoes, but what they have pointed out is their “large number and their beauty.” In the past, these frescoes had a significant role in the religious education of locals. However, after the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the non-artistic dimension of these works was lost. In the contemporary context, the historical importance and role of these frescoes could be brought back, to serve as a useful tool that could contribute to new evangelization of the local population.

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