Dr. Josip Stadler, the first archbishop of Vrhbosna (Sarajevo), a spiritual reviver and reformer of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was born on the 24th of January 1843 in Slavonski Brod in the humble family of the artisan Jure and his wife Marija, born Balošić, who both died young. He was educated in the archdiocesan orphanages in Požega and Zagreb, and he left for Rome in 1862 to study theology, and was granted a doctorate in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1868. After his return to Zagreb, he taught at the seminary, and afterwards was a university professor at the Theology Faculty. In 1881, Pope Leo XIII named him the first archbishop of Vrhbosna with its see in Sarajevo. In his 36 years of work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was untiring in the religious, educational, cultural and national fields.
He had the cathedral in Sarajevo built, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, as well as the junior seminary and secondary school in Travnik, the theological seminary and Church of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Sarajevo, along with the archbishop's palace, the catechism hall, and several churches and convents. He founded two orphanages, Bethlehem and Egypt. He founded the Order of Servants of Little Jesus, and the poor in general. Along with launching the Journal of Sacred Heart, Archbishop Stadler also wrote and edited forty some various works. He died in Sarajevo on the 8th December 1918 at the age of 75, and was buried on the 12th of December in the Sarajevo cathedral. Proceedings have been started to have him beatified.
