Petar Barbarić 1874 - 1897

Petar Barbarić 1874-1897 Ante Puntigam, in its second, expanded edition from 1936, edited by Miroslav Vanino D. I., is a comprehensive biography of a young man whose life in a Catholic environment very early on acquired an almost exemplary, hagiographic status. The first edition was published in 1900, just three years after Barbarić's death, and was written by his professor and educator at the Travnik seminary, the Jesuit Ante Puntigam, who knew him well personally. The later expanded edition confirms the enduring interest in his character and the importance of the book in spreading the word about his holiness.

Petar Barbarić was born in 1874 in Šiljevište near Klobuk in Herzegovina, was educated in Veljaci, briefly worked as a trade apprentice, and then in 1889 entered the Travnik seminary and gymnasium, where he distinguished himself with diligence, humility, piety, and readiness for renunciation. He died young, in 1897 in Travnik, and the book depicts his life as a path of inner purity, discipline, and conscious acceptance of suffering. The work is not only a biography, but also an educational and spiritual book: Barbarić is presented as a role model for Catholic youth, and his biography as a testimony to the ideals of Jesuit education and holiness in everyday life.