The Franciscan Order has been present in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the 13th century. Herzegovinian Franciscans founded an independent community in the middle of the 19th century, which received the Status of Province in 1892 with its seat in Mostar. Franciscans contributed to the development of education, culture and faith by establishing the Franciscan Classical Gymnasium and Seminary. Before WWII, the Province encompassed three monasteries, thirty parishes in West and Northwest Herzegovina, with 162 officiating Friars. The demise of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941 was followed by the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). As an integral part of the unrest accompanying the demise of the old and the proclamation of the new state, armed conflict broke out in Herzegovina between members of the Royal Yugoslav Army and the local Croatian population. After the proclamation of NDH, the remains of the Royal Yugoslav Army and Chetnik groups fought against the newly established administration and military forces of NDH. These conflicts continued during the whole war and ended towards the end of May 1945 with the fall of NDH and the post-war Partisan executions of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the NDH armed forces. The situation in the Herzegovinian Franciscan province was complicated. A group of young Herzegovinian Franciscans supported the idea of the newly established Croatian state. For this reason and due to the inter-national conflicts in Herzegovina, friar Dominik Mandić, the bishop of Mostar Fr. Alojzije Mišić and the administration of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province instructed friars not to become politically active. Fr. Justin (Rafo) Medić and Fr. Rade Glavaš turned a deaf ear to the Provincial instructions and joined the NDH government. Individual Herzegovinian friars spent the war rescuing victims of Ustaše, Chetnik, Partisan, German and Italian persecution. After the retreat of German forces from Dalmatia in autumn 1944, the Partisan movement established government in the larger part of eastern and western Herzegovina. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia marked the Catholic Church, and consequently the Herzegovinian Franciscans, as their main ideological opponents in the region. After having conquered the greater part of Herzegovina towards the end of 1944 and the final conquest in the spring of 1945, Partisans executed 66 Franciscan friars. In the period immediately following the war, the Province had its property confiscated, its schools closed, scripture classes banned and towards the end of 1945, it was on the brink of extinction.