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This paper takes a comparative look at the missions and ideologies of the most influential periodicals in Serbian and Italian cultures in the years preceding the First World War, the Srpski knjizevni glasnik (Serbian Literary Herald) and La Critica. It also describes the public roles and political ideas of the editor of La Critica, Benedetto Croce, and the editors of the Glasnik, Bogdan Popovic, Pavle Popovic and Jovan Skerlic. It looks at the interpretations of Croce?s political ideas put forward in the Glasnik, recognizing a closeness between the liberal literary and political renewal programmes of Benedetto Croce, on the one hand, and Bogdan Popovic, Pavle Popovic and Jovan Skerlic, on the other. Finally, it points to the Glasnik?s repulsion towards the imperialist ideas of Gabriele D?Annunzio, Croce?s main rival in the Italian culture of the period. But under the editorship of Jovan Skerlic, at the time when Serbia was subjected to Austria-Hungary?s pressure and war threat, the Glasnik published D?Annunzio?s short stories and advocated the ideals of activism, vitalism and heroism.

The brief sojourn of St Hilarion to a setting not far from Epidaurus in Dalmatia in circa 365 CE was depicted by St Jerome in Vita Sancti Hilarionis, portraying the two notable miracles of the famous Palestinian anchorite - the slaying of the dragon Boas ravaging the area and the rescue of the city from the giant waves that threatened to devastate it. Both miracles have been interwoven into the later narratives of both medieval writers and the Renaissance chroniclers of Dubrovnik, especially Thomas the Archdeacon (of Split), Anonymous, Nicolo Ragnina and Serafino Razzi. The paper discourses these historians? interpretations (along with the accounts of later Dubrovnik chroniclers) of the glorious miracles of St Hilarion. In the Dubrovnik chronicles, the miracle of the dragon is correlated with the legend of the Theban king Cadmus, who was transformed into a serpent upon his arrival in the area, or with Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine whose most famous sanctuary was the homonymous town in the Peloponnese and whose symbol was a serpent or snake on a rod. In accordance with the local legend, the mentioned chroniclers unambiguously correlated the liberation of the city from beast with the ending of paganism and the baptising of the Dubrovnik populace. Furthermore, the paper discusses the elements related to the cult of St Hilarion in Dubrovnik and its vicinity, drawing attention to the lore preserved in oral tradition.

This paper seeks to thoroughly describe the 1941 Ustasha funerals of Mijo Babic and Antun Pogorelec, two of the most important early Ustasha martyrs, and to demonstrate the centrality of funeral practices in the Ustasha project to reconfigure Croatian society in the 1940s and its role in mediating the relationship between the individual and the state. Funeral practices are not seen only as cultural values imposed from above, but also as events of importance for the members of the movement as well as their supporters in the wider local community that participated in them.

In the medieval and early modern periods, the metropolitans and bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church were elected according to the procedure described in the Archieratikon, the bishop?s liturgical book. The procedure prescribed that the archbishop should choose from among the three candidates nominated by the council of bishops of an autocephalous church. Then the elected bishop was confirmed by the ruler. The archiepiscopal (patriarchal) election procedure was not specifically described because the central role in the process in the middle ages was played by the ruler. In the Ottoman Empire, the central role in the election and confirmation of bishops was played by the sultan, but the ecclesiastical canons were not among his considerations. Sometimes persons unworthy of the office of patriarch, metropolitan or bishop were appointed, without the knowledge of or contrary to the will of the synod. In order to prevent the appointment of an unworthy person as head of the Serbian Church, some patriarchs sought to have their successor elected in their own lifetime and to ensure a smooth transfer of office in agreement with the synod. Based on known sources and unpublished Ottoman documents, this paper discusses the questions of the election of Serbian patriarchs, the usurpation of the patriarchal throne and the attitude of the Ottoman administration towards the clergy. It offers a number of fresh insights into events during the patriarchate of Moses Rajovic (1712-24).

The paper explores the ways religious grassroots actors in the borderlands contribute to the new understanding of cross border regions and religious groups in the space between the Serbian and Romanian Banat from the perspective of the anthropology of borders. The border region included in this paper was the place of interreligious and interethnic encounter, where religions and languages mixed and there was a continuous interaction between Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants. By studying the region that had strong cultural, historical and religious connections, the aim is to provide new insights on the borders and religious groups that are understudied. This article explores the ?liminal? character of religious identities, development of renewal movements and crossing symbolic boundaries with the examples of the ?home-grown? religious movement of the Lord?s Army (Rom. Oastea Domnului) emerged in the first decades of the 20th century.

The paper analyzes the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality in Trieste (SOCM) in Yugoslav-Italian relations in the period from the signing of the London Memorandum in 1954 to the early 1970s. In that period, the SOCM president Dragoljub Vurdelja, an anti-communist and an opponent of socialist Yugoslavia, had a decisive role. Yugoslavia perceived the SOCM under Vurdelja?s leadership as a center of anti-Yugoslav propaganda, so it sought to take control over this church community. To that end, Yugoslavia raised this issue in its relations with Italy and used all available diplomatic means to persuade this country to remove Vurdelja from Trieste. However, the improvement in relations between the SOCM and Yugoslavia began only after Dragoljub Vurdelja died in 1971.

After the signing of the so-called Ciano-Stojadinovic Pact (March 1937), Italian-Yugoslav relations suddenly improved. The turnaround in bilateral relations between the two countries (destined, however, to remain ephemeral) was clearly visible in the field of cultural relations. This essay aims to show how, after 1937, the Italian authorities tried to promote Italian culture and language in a big style in the capital of the Kingdom, Belgrade, in an attempt to counteract the supremacy enjoyed up to then by the cultural action of other countries such as France, Germany, etc., in order to promote the Italian language and culture. The fascination with the Italian civilization was also meant to contribute to bringing Yugoslavia politically and ideologically closer to the Fascist regime. Despite the invested resources and the success of some major events (for example, the great exhibition of Italian portraits through the centuries) the results were disappointing, showing once again the structural limits of Fascist political and cultural action abroad.

In the months between the Italian armistice (September 1943) and the end of the war (May 1945), Italy became the destination of a large group of Yugoslav exiles who, in various ways, opposed Tito and the Socialist and Federal Republic in the process of being formed. These exiles, divided by nationality and political affiliation (ranging from exponents of the resistance linked to the government in exile in London to the most radical collaborators with the Nazis), were united by their staunch anti-communism. Carefully observed by both the Italian secret services and the Allied military government, with the approach of the Cold War this Yugoslav ?refractory community? was increasingly used as a centre of propaganda and in part also of information by the West. After the Tito-Stalin split, this function was reduced, and the community waited for new developments that would only appear forty years later with the dissolution of the disdained Federal and Socialist Republic. This essay is an integral part of research based on the archives of the Italian Military Intelligence Service (SIM) kept at the Historical Office of the Italian Army General Staff in Rome, in the fonds of the Confidential Affairs of the General Directorate of Public Security of the Italian Ministry of the Interior and in the ?Affari Politici - Jugoslavia? collections of the Historical-Diplomatic Archive of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The research is still in progress and aims to create a map of the Yugoslav anti-communist community in Italy from the end of the Second World War until the dissolution of the Federal Republic between 1989 and 1992.

This paper looks at the typology of borders which have traversed the Balkan lands for centuries. They have been diverse - geographical, political, economic, ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural. As a result of their length of duration, consequences and importance, they led to phenomena which can hardly be fully appreciated. Serbs lived along those borders, be they already existing or created over time. This research is focused on two borders. The one created by the division of the Roman Empire (395) and strengthened by the schism of Christianity (1054), and the other, completely different, created by the Ottoman conquest of the Balkan lands in the fifteenth century. Local Balkan borders, on the other hand, have never acquired a broader significance in the culture of this region.