Antonio Velislavi

Don Antonio Velislavi (Bosnian: Antun Velislav) (fl. 1600s) was a Bosnian Benedictine monk from Ragusa and abbot of San Sergio and Bacco monastery in Albania and the deputy bishop of Shkodër. In 1596, Velislavi was appointed abbot of the monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus at the Bojana river. In 1598 they turned to the Pope asking for the extension of the assignment and the delegations, which was granted with the brief issued on 1 April 1598. Their faculties were the same indicated in the brief precedents: to the bishop was assigned for further three years the role of apostolic visitor to the ecclesiastics and the faithful of the regions of Samandria, Belgrade and Serbia, and Ignazio Allegretti also received the same post in the Posega, Temesvár and Sirmio regions. In 1606, the Holy office ordered Antonio Velisalvi and Ignazio Alegretti, former apostolic visitor of Hungary, to report their activities in Hungary. They left Ragusa and traveled through the kingdom of Bossina, and after an 8-day voyage, they passed through the province of Possega situated between the rivers Drava and Sava, in the town of Bagnaluc. There they found to zoccolanti friars. In 1546, Antonio traveled to the Sandzak of Buda were there were 76 clergymen and 13 years later, only 9 lived in the same place. In 1607, Velislavi writes to the Holy Office:"The majority of the churches is roofless, there are not any altars, bells, saints’ statues or fonts, but priests christen at houses or in the fields". Velislavi writes in his reports of interfaith marriages and gives an example of a Christian woman who despite being married to a Turk, remained Catholic all her life.

In Turkish Hungary, the two Benedictine monks treid to reconvert the locals. They were however opposed by Bosnian Observant Franciscans, who told Ottoman authorities that the Ragusan monks were spies. Ottoman authorities arrested the Ragusans and they were released after Ragusan merchants paid a large ransom. The monks later informed the Pope that the Bosnian Franciscans had converted to Islam and thus been granted spahi land.

Between 1602-03, many letters were sent to Pope Clement VIII by the bishop of Stephania, Nikollë Mekajshi, of Albanian origin, and by the bishop of Sappa, Niccol Bianchi, who listed crimes which the bishop of Lezhë, Innocenzo Stoicino, and the abbots Antonio Velislavi and Francesco Scoroveo, had committed: the Ragusans did not speak the Albanian language, they despise the Albanians, committed abuses, took away the furnishing of the churches and the income of the local churhces in Ragusa. For these deeds, the Holy See was asked to revoke the mission and appoint new bishops of Albanian nationality, which shows the rather harsh tone against foreign priests, and in particular, the Albanian clergy's hatred towards Ragusa and Slavs in general.