Queen Katarina (Vukčić Kosača) Kotromanić was the daughter of Duke Stjepan Vukčić Kosača and Jelena, daughter of the ruler of the State of Zeta, Balša III. She was born in Blagaj in 1424.
Stjepan Tomaš came to the Bosnian royal throne in 1443 and Pope Eugene IV. he declared it the legitimate king of Bosnia on May 29, 1445. At that time, the king was looking for a wife and the choice fell on Katarina Kosač. The wedding took place according to the Catholic rite on May 26, 1446 in Milodraž near Fojnica and Katarina became the Bosnian queen.
The Franciscans took care of her religious upbringing. She built the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vrile and the Church of St. Katarina in Jajce. At the beginning of July 1461, King Stjepan Tomaš died under suspicious circumstances. Queen Katarina becomes a widow, and two of her children, Šimun and Katarina, are taken into slavery by the Ottomans. In 1463, her Odyssey begins, which ends with her arrival, life and death in Rome in 1478. In her will, she expressed her will to be buried in the Roman church of Aracoeli, and that the Bosnian kingdom be handed over to the legitimate heirs if they return to their faith, and if they do not he leaves the kingdom back to the Holy See, which can decide on it "according to its discretion". The copy of the will has been preserved to this day and is in the Vatican archives.
(Fr. Andrija Nikić)
