HOUSE GABRIC

House Gabric

In the old part of the city of Metković, known as Krnjesavac, there is the house of the Gabrić family. It is one of the many examples of traditional residential architecture preserved in this part of the city, but it is still interesting because of its size, which shows that its owners belonged to a somewhat wealthier layer of society. It is a simple multi-storey house with a wall that enclosed the courtyard in front of the house.

The Gabrić House is most interesting today because it was the birthplace of the famous Jesuit missionary Father Ante Gabrić in 1915. He left his hometown in 1926 to attend the Jesuit seminary in Travnik, and after studying in Zagreb and Italy in 1938, he left the port of Metković by steamer to India to become a missionary. He was ordained in 1943, after which he dedicated himself to missionary work among Muslims, Hindus and the few Christians, helping the poorest, establishing a rice bank, building numerous schools, hospitals, chapels, roads, huts, embankments and the Maria Polli mission station with health, religious and humanitarian institutions. He particularly distinguished himself in helping Hindu widows who were on the verge of poverty and Indian caste society, and was a close associate of today's St. Mother Teresa, who visited Metković with him several times. Father Ante Gabrić died on October 20, 1988 and was buried in Maria Polli with a handful of Neretva soil and a bottle of the Adriatic Sea. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, February 28, 2015, the diocesan procedure for the beatification of the servant of God, Father Ante Gabrić, was opened.