Ivan Merz

Infobox Saint
name = Ivan Merz
birth_date = 16 December 1896
death_date = 10 May 1928
feast_day = 22 June
venerated_in = Roman Catholic Church
caption = Blessed Ivan Merz
birth_place = Banja Luka
death_place =
beatified_date = 2003
beatified_place = Banja Luka
beatified_by = John-Paul II
canonized_date =
canonized_place =
canonized_by =
attributes =
patronage =
major_shrine =
suppressed_date =
issues =

Ivan Merz (1896-1928 in Zagreb) was a Croatian lay academic, beatified by Pope John-Paul II on a visit of Banja Luka, Bosnia. Ivan Merz promoted the liturgical movement in Croatia and created a movement for the young people “the Croatian union of the Eagles”, inspired by the “Eucharistic Crusade” which he had encountered in France.

Biography

Ivan Merz [ [http://www.ivanmerz.hr/international/eng/index.htm/ Postulation Website of Bl. Ivan Merz, English Biography (Accessed January 30, 2008)] ] was a young layman from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who lived in a turbulent age.

He was born on December 16, 1896 in Banja Luka from a liberal family when Bosnia was occupied by Austria-Hungary. He attended school in the multiethnic and multi-religious environment of his native town and finished when Crown prince Francesco Ferdinando was murdered (June 28, 1914).

He joined the military Academy in Wiener Neustadt at his parents' request but, disgusted by the corruption of this environment, he left after three months. In 1915, he started his university studies in Vienna, but was called up shortly thereafter to serve in the army during World War I. After that, he returned to Banja Luka, where he experienced the radical political change and the birth of the new Yugoslav State. In 1919 and in 1920 he was back in Vienna, studying at the Faculty of Philosophy. In October 1920 he set off for Paris, where he attended some lessons at the Sorbonne University and in the “Institute catholique”, preparing in the meantime his doctoral dissertation

He won his doctorate at the Faculty of Philosophy on the University of Zagreb 1923 by the thesis “The influence of liturgy on the French writers.” He was professor at the archiepiscopal gymnasium in Zagreb till his death (May 10, 1928).

Little known outside his native country, Ivan Merz fascinates those who approach it--a catholic student and soldier, then an intellectual layman with a wide culture who employed all his own energies serving other people and educating the Croatian youth.

Without a family or spiritual guidance, he found his way to sanctity, so that he was defined as a “Spontaneous spiril fruit”, where the presence of the Grace is experimentally proved. There are only a few saints whose spiritual itinerary we can follow from so close as in the case of Ivan Merz, as he kept a diary throughout his life.

The character emerging from this diary is not that of a “born saint” man, but rather that of a young man fighting for the Good and winning his battle and therefore serving as an example for others striving for perfection. In his diary, in the period of the War, it is possible to feel the deepness of his soul where material and spiritual poverty of the life in the army are mirrored and mingled together with the light of Grace. “There is no Holy Eucharist – he wrote in September 19, 1917 - I am living as a pagan or as a beast, as if the Agnus was no more in the centre of the universe, as if He did not exist at all”.

“Oh God the Comforter, come and pervade me and my nature with atoms of eternity, so that, more similar to you, I can understand the developing of existence. The present state is busy with rum while the Holy Eucharist is of a minor importance. Where are the military chaplains? Why are they deserting their flock now when they need God the most? “.

“Oh God, the best would be if I was already with You, so, please, burn all the parasites of sin that crept into my soul with the flame of your Mercy, so that I can appear before You good and holy; or at least, to be inspired, while leaving, with a holy joy and an extraordinary will” ( July 13, 1918).

Even at the front Ivan was fasting: “ ‘Memento mori - bacon is waiting there to set me a trap! Those who think that fasting is just a little something, do not really know what they are talking about. There is no spiritual life without fasting… Oh God, provide me with a strong will, even if I were barefoot and naked!”(August 23, 1918 ).

“Never to forget God! Always wishing to join Him. Devoting every day, better dawn, some time to meditation, to prayer, if possible being close to the Eucharist or during the Holy Mass. At that hour all the projects for the day that starts have to be planned, all the faults have to be examined and the Grace to overcome weaknesses has to be asked. It would be terrible if this war could turn in no benefit for me! … I must start leading a new life, regenerate from the spirit of a new knowledge of Catholicism. May God help me, because there is nothing a man can do single-handed. ( February 5, 1918 ).

Merz came out of the war a mature Christian and as such, he resumed his studies in Vienna and continued them in France, devoting himself more and more to the Croatian Catholic Movement.

Once back in Zagreb, he gave a new direction to the youth’s movement of the “Eagles’, according to the Catholic Action’s principles. As a mature man he modeled the “catholic man” par excellence, whose heart was beating together with the heart of the Church, that has no national or political frontiers; the Church that is the Mystical Body of Christ, gathered around the real Christ in Eucharist, represented by his vicar on earth, the Pope. The Church, the Eucharist and the Pope: three loves, or rather one only love, according to Merz, who was trying with all his might to instill it in the Croatian youth.

He promoted the liturgical movement in Croatia and, according to Pius XI’s instructions, in order to put together an “elite” of apostles to work for the “renewal of everything in Christ”. He worked for five years to establish the Kingdom of God in his country.

As a layman consecrated to God, he devoted himself for six years to the apostolic work of bringing up Catholic youth in Croatia. He promoted the liturgical revival and the Catholic Action of the Pope Pius XI. Completely devoted to the Church and the Vicar of Christ in Rome, Ivan lived a holy life imbued with the worship of the Eucharist. Although he was a layman he is called “the pillar of the Church” in Croatia.

In 1928, Merz passed away, leaving an example of how a man can live, fight and suffer for God’s cause. Merz tried hard to give his life the “full meaning”, heading for sanctity, and all his pedagogical task was devoted to the formation of apostles of sanctity. He died on May 10, 1928 with a reputation of a saint. His shrine is located in the Basilica of the Heart of Jesus in Zagreb, Croatia. The canonization cause started in 1958. Pope John Paul II beatified him Banja Luka, Bosnia, on June 22, 2003, and put him as an example of Christian life to the young and lay believers.

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