Monument Of J. J. Strossmayer In Zagreb, Croatia Editorial Image

Josip Juraj Strossmayer 4 February 1815 – 8 May 1905 was a Croatian politician, Roman Catholic bishop and benefactor. Strossmayer was born in Osijek to a Croatian family. His great-grandfather was an ethnic German immigrant from Styria who had married a Croatian woman. He finished a gymnasium in Osijek, graduated theology at the Catholic seminary in Đakovo, and earned a PhD in philosophy at a high seminary in Budapest, at the age of 20. In 1838 he worked as a vicar in Petrovaradin, before moving to Vienna in 1840 to the Augustineum and the University of Vienna, where he received another doctorate in philosophy and Canon law in 1842. In 1847 he was made the Habsburg palace chaplain a position he would hold until 1859, and named one of the rectors of the Augustineum.