Croatian Covenant Rosary – 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition

In the spirit of sacred remembrance and national encouragement, the “Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica” (Croatian Covenant Rosary) 125th Anniversary Jubilee Limited Edition has been created to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the consecration of 160 000 young Croatians to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in AD 1900.
This Jubilee edition rosary bears a twofold mission: to Remember and Encourage.

REMEMBER
To remember our nation’s sacred past – our covenant with Christ and His Holy Catholic Church and the fidelity of our forefathers. As this reflective quote reminds us:
“We have existed for over thirteen centuries. The very fact that we began to exist as an organic people thirteen centuries ago and that we still exist today is something remarkable, something that carries a deep meaning and inexhaustible vitality and a certain mission.”
The soul of this remembrance is etched into the two central elements of this rosary: the “Zavjetni Križ” (Covenant Cross) and the “Zavjetna Medaljica” (centrepiece Covenant Medal). These are not mere symbols, but sacred anchors of our identity.

ENCOURAGE
To encourage every Croatian Catholic to live out the sacred vow entrusted to us – to live our baptismal identity faithfully, concretely, and courageously in our everyday life and calling. Our ancestors passed down the flame of faith. It is now our time to keep it burning and pass it on to future generations.
With Divine Providence, the Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica has emerged as a living testament to the power and importance of the Holy Rosary amongst the Croats. It is the greatest spiritual weapon entrusted to us in the battle against the devil, his demons and the forces of darkness.

A ROSARY WOVEN WITH THE THREADS OF A NATION
Infused with religious, historic, and cultural heritage, every element of the rosary is intentional. It is designed not only as an object of devotion but as a unifying emblem for Croatians across the homeland and the diaspora – a shared prayer, a shared mission and a shared heart.

CROATIAN COVENANT CROSS (Hrvatski Zavjetni Križ): A MONUMENT OF FAITH AND NATIONAL MEMORY
Forged in 1979 to mark the eleven-hundredth anniversary of the papal blessing of Prince Branimir and the Croatian people, the Hrvatski Zavjetni Križ—Croatian Covenant Cross—is not merely a crucifix, but a national catechism wrought in bronze. It is a solemn proclamation, echoing through the centuries, that the Croatian people were baptised into the light of Christ in ancient times and have remained resolute in their Catholic faith through tribulation, persecution, and sacrifice.

This cross stands as a beacon of our sacred history—a history steeped in blood, fidelity, and Divine Providence. It is crowned with the baptismal font of Prince Višeslav of Nin (c. 800 AD), which reminds us of the sacred waters through which Croatia entered Christendom and the cultural circle of Christian Europe. The figure of Christ, drawn from the oldest known Croatian crucifix in the monastery of St Francis (12th century, Zadar), extends His arms in embrace, gathering a people who have never abandoned the Cross, nor the promises it contains.

Every element on the Cross is deliberate, each a chapter in our sacred heritage:
To Christ’s right: the Branimir Inscription from Šopot near Benkovac, the earliest recorded mention of the name “Croat” (DVX CRVATORVM), carved in stone under the sign of the cross—a symbol of both sovereignty and faith.

To His left: Our Lady of the Great Covenant – the oldest known image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Croatia, is a rustic yet deeply tender Marian relief sculpted in the 11th century near Knin. Later immortalised in gold and silver, it stands as a timeless witness to the centuries of Marian devotion woven into the very heart of Croatian identity.

At Christ’s feet: Branimir’s Cross, the Keys of St Peter, and the Jubilee dates 879–1979, commemorating our unwavering communion with the Holy See, first formally recognised by Pope John VIII when he blessed the Croatian people and their prince, and reaffirmed a millennium later by Pope St John Paul II, who once again blessed the Croatian nation during the 1979 Branimir year Jubilee celebrations.

The ancient Croatian interlace weave (pleter) woven through the Cross unites heaven and earth, a motif as old as the nation itself, symbolising the eternal bond between the divine and the human. The Cross was conceived under the leadership of Archbishop Marijan Oblak of Zadar and the Branimir Jubilee Committee, whose vision was to create a spiritual monument that would affirm the indissoluble union of faith and nationhood.

That same year, the Croatian Bishops’ Conference composed the Croatian Catholics’ Profession of Faith, an enduring testament to unity and belief. They urged that it be recited nightly at 9:00 pm, inviting every Croatian home to be a domestic church, offering a daily act of fidelity to Christ and His Church.

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Croatian Catholics’ Profession of Faith
I firmly believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. With my life I wish to confirm my baptismal covenant with God and renew our forefathers’ holy covenant of faith in Jesus Christ and faithfulness to the Catholic Church. I place my resolve in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of God. Amen

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On the reverse of the Cross, our covenant commitments are inscribed – our solemn response to the grace bestowed. Most prominent, etched into the horizontal bar of the Cross – symbolising the weight we must bear – is the exhortation: “Hrvatska katolička obitelj dnevno moli i nedjeljom slavi misu” (“The Croatian Catholic family prays daily and celebrates Mass on Sundays”)—a mandate for spiritual life anchored in prayer and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Intersecting this, on the vertical bar of the cross, is the ancient Glagolitic script proclaiming our national motto: “Bog i Hrvati” (“God and the Croats”). It is positioned with deliberate symbolism: Bog (“God”) stands at the top – above all else – while Hrvati (“the Croats”) is positioned at the base, signifying that the Croatian people stand under God’s authority and blessing, completed with the traditional Hrvatski grb—Croatian coat of arms under the Hrvati text. These elements—God, Family, Homeland—are hierarchically arranged, reflecting the sacred order of Croatian devotion and duty within the covenant.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II, echoing Pope John VIII eleven centuries prior, bestowed his apostolic blessing upon the Croatian nation during the Jubilee. At that moment, Croatia renewed its ancestral vows before God and the world. The Zavjetni Križ remains an enduring sign of that renewal: an icon of memory, a call to perseverance, and a declaration that Croatia’s soul is, and always has been, Catholic.

COVENANT MEDAL 125TH ANIVERSARY JUBILEE LIMITED EDITION
The heart of the rosary’s centrepiece is the “Zavjetna Medaljica” (Covenant Medal), inspired by the sacred consecration of 160 000 Croatian youths to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1900 – an unprecedented act of a national devotion.

The image of the Sacred Heart on the medal replicates the actual gold Sacred Heart that was gifted to the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, during the historic Croatian youth pilgrimage to Rome.

To further commemorate this event, the coat-of-arms (‘grb’) shape was deliberately shaped to match the historic ‘grb’ featured in the literature preparing for the 1900 Youth Consecration. On the ‘grb’, this limited-edition jubilee design bears on its reverse the timeless battle cry of a consecrated generation: “Hrvatska Omladina u boj pod Zastavom Srca Isusova” (Croatian Youth to battle under the banner of Christ) AD 1900-2025.

One line from their consecration prayer still echoes with prophetic urgency:

“The youth of the Croatian people, that bulwark of Christianity, in this holy year, at the end of the old and at the dawn of the new age, ……….and solemnly promise to bravely and fearlessly fight for faith and for homeland under the banner of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

The consecration of Croatian youth in AD 1900 was not merely a national moment – it was a singular and unique event in global Catholic history. No other Catholic nation at the turn of the 20th century, witnessed such a collective, solemn pledge of fidelity to Christ by its youth. It stands as a beacon of Croatia’s unwavering identity as the Antemurale Christianitatis – the Bulwark of Christianity.

To commemorate this covenant anew, the “Hrvatska Zavjetna Krunica” 125th Jubilee Limited Edition is available in three reverent versions: the stainless-steel pull chain version (military style), para cord version (stainless steel beads) and the hand-crafted olive wood version.