Dušan Subotić

Holy New Martyr Dušan Subotić was born on 11 February 1884 at Gradiška, into an old priestly family, the son of John, a priest, and Maria. He studied at the seminary in Sarajevo and was ordained a priest on 29 and 30 January 1906 by Metropolitan Eugene of Banja Luka and Bihać. He was parish priest at Laminci near Gradiška until 1912, then at Gradiška, and from 1935 dean of the district of Bosanska Gradiška. He opened Serbian schools, cooperatives and reading rooms, and was elected five times a deputy in the National Assembly of the Kingdom: in 1920, 1923, 1925, 1935 and 1938. At his initiative the church of the Protection of the Mother of God was built at Gradiška in 1927, razed to the ground by the Ustasha in 1941.

A few days after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia he was arrested, on 11 April 1941, on a charge of anti-⁠state activity. He was held in a Catholic monastery, then in the camp at Stara Gradiška, and finally in the Kastel fortress in Banja Luka, where he was tortured. In the night of 4 to 5 May 1941 he was killed together with Bishop Platon of Banja Luka. His body was thrown into the river Vrbanja and found on 24 May; in 1946 it was moved to Gradiška. The Serbian Orthodox Church numbered him among the holy hieromartyrs.