NIKOLA PLANTICH.... KING OF PARAGUAY

I believe the movie, THE MISSION, starring Robert De Niro was based on the life of our Croatian Nikola Plantich..KING of PARAGUAY.

The Archives of Zagreb, Consilium Regnum Croaticum 1776, offers authentic autobiographical statements by Nikola Plantic (Nikolaus Blantisch), a Jesuit of note from Tucuman, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, originally from Croatia, who was expelled from America in the anti-Jesuit developments in 1767, and maybe other Croatian missionaries, banished on the same occasion. The Jesuit autobiographies, giving brief data about the persons to whom they refer and including details about their work and experience, were submitted to the local Croatian authorities in writing upon the enactment of the local decree of suppression (1773), when every Jesuit was required to file a curriculum vitae. The personal data provided in Plantic's autobiography are of special interest, in view of the fact that in the campaign from Portugal (Pombal) and other anti-Jesuit centers in the time of these banishments, he (Plantic) was accused of having usurped the royal powers in the reductions of Paraguay and indeed of having assumed the title of King of Paraguay and organized uprisings and war by Indians against the Spanish regular army in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate Spanish and Portuguese governments. Plantic, says that he set out for Paraguay, a province in South America, to convert the native population to the church of Christ. Plantic's autobiography was recently published in the local journals. His case gave rise to a considerable local literature providing a great deal of information on the history of the Jesuits in the reductions of Paraguay and generally in the estuary of La Plata in the period of the Spanish decree of banishment (1767).

Vanino, Miroslav. Nikola Plantic Toboznji Kralj Paraguajski. Zagreb: Nadbiskupske Tiskare, 1917. A Croatian King of Paraguay.

Adam S. Eterovich

croatians@aol.com

www.croatians.com