HOSPITALITY DURING THE VISITATIONS TO THE DALMATIAN PROVINCE OF ST JEROME (1559 – 1827

Sa？etak One of the gravest and principal duties of a provincial minister of the Dalmatian Franciscan province of St Jerome was customary yearly visitation of all the monasteries within the Province. Namely, each year the Provincial (Minister of the Province), escorted by his secretary and at least one assistant, had to spend several months at the sea, while visiting all the monasteries in the vast region from Trieste on the north up to Kotor on the south, since all the Eastern Adriatic coast under the Venetian rule was under his jurisdiction. In the period between 1559 and 1827 Dalmatian Franciscan Province of St Jerome was divided into four custodies with little bit more than twenty monasteries. Thus, visiting all the monasteries each year demanded a considerable strength and pretty strong health. Due to the newest investigations in the central Provincial archives of Conventual Franciscans in Zagreb, author of this article managed to analyze and examine many forms of hospitality that were shown to the Provincial and his escort. This hospitality was shown not only by the members of the Province but also by observants and members of the Third Order. At that time it was impossible to precisely plan visitation, since technology of sailing and traveling in general did not permit travelers to predict an exact time of arrival. Thus, many of these visitations were basically unexpected, especially since the weather conditions often did not allow ships to dock at harbor or mooring nearest to the visited monastery. Therefore, Provincial had to “knock at doors” of nearby local community which was not necessarily part of his Province. Consequently, many of such unexpected visitations ended in the monasteries of Franciscan observants or Glagolitic friars of the Third Order. These numerous examples clearly witness well know hospitality of people at the Eastern Adriatic coast