Croatia: Chronology

1841 • CroatiaOrson Hyde passed through Croatia on his mission to Jerusalem.

John Stosich missionary portrait

April 8–May 18, 1911 • Zagreb, Croatia

John Stosich (Janko Stošić), a Croatian who had joined the Church in the United States, returned to Zagreb as a missionary and preached briefly before being forced to leave town.

1918 • Beograd, YugoslaviaEviza Arbić Vujičić, who was born in Bukovica (now Špišić Bukovica) in Slavonia and baptized in Budapest, Hungary, was the first member of the Church to live in Yugoslavia.

August 26–27, 1934 • BeogradArthur Gaeth, president of the Czechoslovak Mission, met with Eviza Arbić Vujičić, Matej Spaček, and four of their friends in what proved to be the last missionary visit to Yugoslavia for many years.

July 11–12, 1966 • ZagrebMission president Johann Peter Loscher and his assistant Ralph V. Benson of the Austrian Mission traveled to Croatia to baptize Tomislav Zidar, who had been converted through Church literature.

March 26, 1972 • Salt Lake City, UtahKrešimir Ćosić was set apart as a special missionary to Yugoslavia by Elder Gordon B. Hinckley of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His assignment was to build up the Church in his homeland over the course of his basketball career.

1974 • Zadar, CroatiaThe Zadar Yugoslavia Branch, the first in Croatia, began holding meetings.

1975 • AustriaGustav Salik, who was born in Zrenjanin, Serbia, and living in Brazil, was called to Austria with the task of opening a mission in Yugoslavia. Salik spent two years petitioning the government of Yugoslavia for clearance to open the mission, but he was unable to secure it.

February 1978 • Zadar and ZagrebMissionaries from the Austria Vienna Mission received a special assignment to go to Yugoslavia as students to support branches and answer questions about their faith.

1979 • CroatiaThe Book of Mormon was published in Serbo-Croatian.

April 4, 1980 • ZagrebThe Yugoslavia District was organized.

1981 • Montréal, CanadaRadmila Ranović, the first full-time missionary called from Yugoslavia, served in the Canada Montréal Mission.

1982 • ZagrebThe Zagreb Branch was organized.

October 31, 1985 • ZagrebElder Thomas S. Monson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles offered a prayer dedicating the land of Yugoslavia for the preaching of the gospel.

April 15–19, 1987 • Zagreb and BeogradElder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other Church leaders met with government authorities and secured verbal permission for missionaries in Croatia to openly proselytize.

September 1987 • CroatiaCroatia’s government granted the Church legal recognition.

June 25, 1991 • CroatiaCroatia declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1991–95 • CroatiaDuring the Yugoslav wars, supplies were sent from the bishops’ storehouse to the people of Croatia and other former Yugoslav republics. Latter-day Saints from across Europe also developed projects to send aid to the region.

October 1992 • Karlovac, CroatiaThe Karlovac Branch was organized.

1997 • Sisak, CroatiaVernon and Muriel Smith, while serving as senior missionaries, launched a project to help struggling farmers in the Sisak region reestablish the local pork industry.

December 28, 1997 • Varaždin, CroatiaThe Varaždin Branch was organized.

December 2002 • Osijek and Rijeka, CroatiaThe Osijek and Rijeka Branches were organized.

May 25, 2005 • ZagrebThe city of Zagreb named a major public square after Krešimir Ćosić.

May 24, 2009 • ZagrebElder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the first Church-constructed meetinghouse in Croatia.

May 2012 • Novi Sad, SerbiaYoung women from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia attended the first Young Women camp at Fruška Gora National Park.

June 1–2, 2012 • Ugljan Island, CroatiaCroatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Slovenian members of the Church gathered at the Krešimir Ćosić Dvor near Zadar to commemorate 40 years since the beginning of Ćosić’s efforts to establish the Church in the former Yugoslavia. More than 375 people attended.