Graeca fides, nulla fides. (Prelasci pravoslavaca na katolicizam u gornjovrbaškom kraju u osmanlijsko doba)
Graeca fides, nulla fides (Conversion of the Orthodox beliwers to Catholicism in the Vrbas headwaters (Uskoplje) during the period of the Ottoman

Summary/Abstract: The number of Orthodox beliversʼ conversions to Catholicism in the Vrbas headwaters (Uskoplje) in middle Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period of the Ottoman occupation were rather low, and were prevalently caused by the marriage with the Catholics. Harsh reactions from their families, relatives and the Orthdox community followed, including force and highest islamic low courts. The number of conversions of Orthodox believers to catholicism during Ottoman occupation in the Upper Vrbas Region of Bosnia and Herzegovina was close to negligible. Those that occured were the result of marriages to Catholics. The Parish Registers of Skopje/Gornji Vakuf, Malo Selo/Bugojno and Golo Brdo/Kandija (kept from 1755) till the end od Ottoman occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina show total of 5297 marriages. Amongst them were 2 marriages of Orthodox believers and weddings of 5 Orthodox women who converted to Catholic faith before their marriage. The men married in 1802 and 1808 and the women married in 1800, 1843, 1861, 1874 and 1878. Three of them were members of the Gnjatić Orthodox clan who hailed from Golo Brdo, Vileši and Barbarići, neighbouring settlements of the Bugojno Region. Conversions to Catholicism of Gajo/Gavro Gnjatić in 1802 and Ruža Gnjatić in 1861 as well as that of Anna Miljanić from Sarajlije near Duvno in 1843 have caused quite a reaction of the Orthodox Church Establishment and its followers who tried by force to make converts stay in the Orthodox Church. Due to their deceitful character, the sincerity of these conversions was doubted by some of the most infl uential catholic priests. Hostile behavior of the Orthodox Church structures and its members towards the Catholics has not changed during Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is confi rmed by a case of one Stana Zjajić, a girl from the Malovan settlement near Kupres, who was the same day of her marriage in Bugojno to a Catholic Tomo Vučak from Osmanlije (28 April 1895) obducted from her husband and returned to her father. Shortly after that her father made her marry some man from the Orthodox community. If in the beginning of the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina the baptism of one newly born, whose parents were nomads from Serbia (in other words Gypsies), is not taken into an account, no other Catholic baptisms from Orthodox parents were recorded in the Upper Vrbas region.

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