CROATIAN FILM INSTITUTE

FRANCISCAN BERNARDIN SOKOL

“At dawn, when the sweet bell’s voice wakes me from my sleep,

I fold my hands in prayer, Mother, to You at that hour.”

This film shares the long-silenced story of murdered Franciscan composer Bernardin Sokol (K. Sućurac 1888 - Badija 1944). During the communist Yugoslav regime (1944-1990), no one was permitted to speak about this gifted composer, pedagogue, and publisher. 

He had studied church music at the Vienna Academy of Music in 1915 and received his doctorate in theology in 1925 from the University of Rome. As a composer, he was decades ahead of his time, a musician’s musician, alongside Puccini and Wagner with harmonic and compositional innovations.

While he was staying on the island of Badija in Croatia in 1944, communist partisans came for the Franciscan priest during the night, ostensibly for interrogation. They took him by boat from the island to the mainland. Enroute they killed him and threw him into the sea, hoping that the sea would hide their crime. But the sea washed his body ashore. He was murdered by people who called themselves anti-fascists. They convicted and killed him without trial. During the Yugoslav communist regime, Sokol’s expressions of love for his own Croatian people and country were considered his greatest sins and deserving of a death sentence.

The film features: Prof. dr. sc. Fra Bernardin Škunca OFM, Dragon of Punta Mira, honorary president of the Croatian Society of Fra Bernardin Sokol (HDBS); Prof. dr. sc. Mihovil Biočić, member of the HDBS; Milivoj Bratinčević, dipl. oecc., Dragon of Putalj II of the Brothers of the Croatian Dragon (DBHZ), vice-president of the HDBS; Prof. dr. sc. Mislav Grgić, Grand Master, DBHZ; Mo Josip degl’ Ivellio, chancellor of DBHZ, president of the Croatian Society Fra Bernardin Sokol; Fra Benjamin Milković, Delfi Prizmić, née Bonković, witness.

The following individuals are recognized for their long-standing work discovering the truth about Fra Bernardin Sokol: Fra Bernardin Škunca, Milivoj Bratinčević, Mihovil Biočić, Fra Stipe Nosić, Mo Josip degl’ Ivellio, Mislav Grgić, Delfi Prizmić, Andrea Šain, the late Ivo and Juro Mateljak, Antun Begović, Tomislav Ančić, Fra Frano Delić, Fra Šimun Romić, Fra Andrija Bilokapić, Fra Veseljko Grubišić, Fra Anselmo Stulić, Fra Šime Škibola, Fra Tomislav Šanko, Don Marko Stanić, Miroslav Luketin Sarajčev, Petar Kraljević, Fra Josip Sopta, Stanka Kraljević.

Institutions: Province of St. Jeronima Zadar, County of Split - Dalmatia, City of Kaštela, Parish of St. Jurja K. Sućurac, Municipality of Orebić, Cemex Croatia - K. Sućurac, Ministry of Veterans of the Republic of Croatia.

Special Thanks to: Nautilus K. Sućurac.