Vukašin Mandrapa

Saint Vukašin Mandrapa (Serbian Cyrillic: Вукашин Мандрапа) (end of 19th century—1943) is a saint and a martyr of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He is seen as a testament to the Serbians' strong faith.

Vukasin Mandrapa was a farmer and merchant, born in Klepci (at the time the Ottoman Empire, modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina). He and his family lived in Sarajevo and then returned to Klepci, but were arrested and sent to the Independent State of Croatia Jasenovac death camp, for both their Serbian ethnicity and for refusing to convert from Serbian Orthodox Christianity to Roman Catholicism. At least two nephews of him are said to have died in Jasenovac before he did.

In January 1943, Mandrapa was singled out by the Croatian Ustaše Josep "Zhila" Friganović, who had noticed his stoic behavior during the forced labor days and the slaughter of prisoners at night. Then, he was mutilated by Friganović, after his repeated refusals to praise Ustase leader Ante Pavelic. For as long as Mandrapa could speak, he told Friganović "radi ti, dijete, svoj posao." ("Do your job, child" in Serbian): as a result his ears, tongue and nose were cut, then his eyes and heart were gouged out, and his throat was slit. Friganović is said to have been unable to kill more people that night, fallen into alcoholism, and years later later he confessed this to a doctor named Nedelko Nedo Zets, who wrote it down. This testimony would be used later to make Mandrapa a saint.