800th Ann of the Abjuration at Bilino Polje

On April 8, 1203, Ban Kulin, Dragić, Ljubin, Dražeta, Pribiš, Ljuben, Radoš, Vladoš, Archdeacon Marin of Dubrovnik, together with other church and political leaders of the country, renounced the Bogomil heresy before the legate of Pope Innocent III, John de Casamaris, at Bilino Polje near Zeneca. This was accomplished through a written “Abjuration” and an oral vow that they and the inhabitants of their lands would obey the doctrines and edicts of the Roman Catholic Church. They pledged their lands in security. Ban Kulin further pledged that he and the Croatian-Hungarian king would pay a fine in silver if heresy were to be tolerated in their lands.

On April 30, 1203, two legates of the Bosnian Bogomils, Ljubin and Dražeta, repeated this renunciation before the Croatian-Hungarian King Emeric on an island near Budapest.

Ban Kulin, a Church and political leader of the time, and approximately 10,000 of the faithful were denounced by King Vukan of Zeta, who had hoped to expand his holdings in the territory of Bosnia. Ban Kulin asked the Pope to send his legate to Bosnia in order to investigate the religious situation.