An amazing anti-war, pacifist sermon was given in 1778 by an anonymous Croatian preacher to Croatian soldiers, immediately before the battle between Austrian and Prussian troops in Bohemia:

• in Croatian
• in English

At that time majority of soldiers for Austrian army were recruited from Croats (that’s how the necktie, ie., Cravate, had spread throughout the world): out of 80-100,000 Austrian soldiers, about 60,000 were Croats. While the Croatian original of this remarkable sermon is still unknown, that same year eight translations were published in German, Dutch and Swedish, and in Latvian in 1804:

• German: one edition from 1778;
• Dutch: three editions from 1778, published in the Hague (!), Amsterdam, and Leeuwarden;
• Swedish: 1778 edition in Norrköping, 1779 edition in Stockholm;
• Latvian: Riga – Leipzig 1804, reprint of Latvian and German translations in Riga 1804, Latvian translation in Jelgawa in 1805.

The title page of the sermon is:

A Remarkable Address given by a Croatian Minister to Those going to War and due to its Excellency Translated into German [Dutch, Swedish, Latvian]

Here are title pages of Dutch and German 1778 editions:

The German 1778 translation was retranslated back to Croatian language in Arapovic’s monograph in 1999, where you can find also its English translation. It is very probable that the text was published in some other west-European languages as well. Note that this universal message of peace, religious tolerance and patriotism was translated in enemy countries (with respect to Austria), that were a part of Protestant Christianity.

Reference: Borislav Arapovic, Hrvatski mirospis 1778, Matica hrvatska, Mostar, 1999, ISBN 9958-9448-2-0

Dr. Borislav Arapovic is a honorary director of Biblical institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Born in Bisine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1935, studied in Zagreb, emigrated in 1965 to Sweden due to political reasons, in Stockholm earned his Ph.D. In 1973 he founded The Institute for Translation of The Bible into Languages of (former) Soviet Union. In 1996 the Russian Academy of Sciences conferred him a doctorate honoris causa. In 1999 he was elected foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For the creation of the Children’s Bible in 1983, Dr. Borislav Arapovic was awarded the Leo Tolstoy medal by the Russian Children’s Fund. In the period of 1983-90 ten editions of the Children’s Bible in five million copies were printed for free distribution in Russia. Photo from the Institute for Bible Translation, Russia. For those who can read Russian, see Institut perevoda Biblii. See Arapovic’s biography in Swedish.

See Beniamin (or Veniamin in the Russian), a Croatian dominican priest, and his participation in writing the first Russian Bible in Novgorod, 1499

Dr. Borislav Arapovic elected member of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2010

Borislav Arapovic discovered two interesting texts related to Croatian military, both written originally in the Croatian language, but only their German translations are known:

• Kurze Anrede (A Short Address), Vienna 1779, 10 pages, containing Ivan Vukasovic’s address to Croatian soldiers. The full title is A Short Address to the children of his parish made by Mr. Ivan von Vukasovic, Catholic parish priest in the town of Otocac in Croatia, on 3 January 1779, when following the end of the first campaign they returned home on leave and in their principal parish church raised a captured Prussian flag which had most graciously been presented to them. Translated from the Croatian language into German.
• Die Hemkunft der Kroaten (The Return of the Croatas), poem of an anonymous author, Vienna 1779. It is probably related to the town of Krizevci on the north of Croatia, and contains 37 stanzas of four verses each.