Rijeka, (IKA) – When the Holy Father visits the Sanctuary of St. Mary of Trsat, the guardians of the Sanctuary will give him two symbolic gifts. These are the reprints of two books. The first is the “Soul#!s Paradise” of Katarina Frankopan from 1560, and the second is “Historia Tersattana” by Franjo Glavinic from 1646. These books are the best testimonies of the seven centuries long history of the Sanctuary and enable us to understand the present situation by evaluating the past.

1. THE PRAYER-BOOK “SOUL#!S PARADISE”
This prayer-book, written by Nikola Desic for Katarina Frankopan, is the first book printed in Latin script of the Croatian popular theology. Because of its linguistic specificity, our esteemed linguists have placed it at the beginning of the so called “literary circle of Ozalj” where, under the auspices of the noble families Zrinski and Frankopan, the writers were trying to define a united, standard of Croatian literary language taking into account the three different Croatian dialects. The contents of the prayer-book are the testimony of the devotion of Croatian Catholics in the late Middle Ages, at the time of Catholic renewal in the spirit of the Trident Council. It abounds in original prayers and this originality is twofold. Firstly, the contents of new prayers disengage from the standard Middle Ages prayer-books, and secondly they are personified for Katarina Frankopan, later to become wife of Nikola Subic Zrinski of Siget. Nevertheless, this prayer-book is not just a prayer-book of Katarina Frankopan, but also of the entire Sanctuary. It was used by the Franciscans of Trsat and their pilgrims. The texts of many prayers, especially the litanies of St. Mary, reflect the contemporary situation and directly touch upon the world we live in. From the prayers it is clear that the Turks are a threat to Trsat, therefore the one who prays invokes the Mother of God with the following exclamations “holy mother of freedom”, “mother peacemaker”, “mother of harmony”, “mother of the fatherland” and “the holy mother of peace”. The Franciscans will offer these litanies to the Pope, translated into the Polish language, so that he can be inspired in his prayers in front of St. Mary of Trsat by these invocations, which have originated in the Sanctuary and which are the symbols of the Christian faith and hope.

2. THE DEDICATION TO THE POPE
Glavinic#!s manuscript opens with a collective picture on which in nine sequences the history of the Sanctuary is represented. In the center of the picture there is St. Mary of Trsat whose picture according to the tradition was made by St. Luke and a gift of Pope Urban V. The history of the Sanctuary of Trsat begins with the picture, above the picture of St. Mary, showing the angels carrying the house from Nazareth, and it ends with the sequence below the picture of St. Mary where there is Glavinic#!s dedication to the then emperor Ferdinand III. In the new reprint another picture was added, stylized in the same way, showing the history of the Sanctuary from Glavinic#!s time up to now, while in the center there is the picture of the sanctuary as it is today. Below the central picture, in the dedication frame, there is the dedication to Pope John Paul II with the date of his visit to the Sanctuary, i.e. June 8, 2003.

The Rosary of Trsat
The Sanctuary of Trsat is a place of prayer to St. Mary, especially of the simplest prayer, that is the rosary. To the Holy Father will be presented a wooden rosary on which at the beginning of each string of beads there is the picture of St. Mary of Trsat, while at the beginning of each ten there is a scene, carved in wood, of the sacred rites proposed as prayers by the Pope. This rosary, after the Pope#!s visit, will be known as the rosary of Trsat.

The blessing of the Corner Stone
The Franciscans will ask the Holy Father to bless the corner stone of the new pastoral center in the Sanctuary, which will bear his name “Aula of Pope John Paul II.” On the ground floor of the center there will be the confessionals, while on the first floor a conference room and other premises for the pilgrims.

The Ancient Slavic Vesperal of Vrbnik (The present of the Krk Diocese to the Holy Father)
In occasion of the Third Apostolic Visit to Croatia, the Krk Diocese by hands of mons. Valter Zupan, the Bishop of Krk will present the Pope John Paul II with the token of love and devotion, a historical and liturgic book, Vesperal, which, as a part of the Breviary, contains Evening prayers for all the Sundays of the year, Sundays through the holy times, Festivities of the Lord , Saint#!s Evening Prayers and common Saint#!s Evening Prayers. The richly decorated book with two additional parts intended for liturgy in ancient Slavic language is printed according to the current liturgic rules and regulations of the Church and in spirit of the second Vatican Council. The first addition contains the Order of the Holy Mass and all the prayers used in the Vrbnik Parish in ancient Slavic language on various occasions through the Church year. The other addition contains prayers and psalms that are not strictly liturgic but are prayed and sung for centuries in Vrbnik. The book was printed in 1999. under patronage of the Vrbnik parish.
Well, that is an updated version of the Ancient Slavic Vesperal in the Ancient Croatian liturgic language.