Orthodox Croats

According to the census of 2011, in Croatia there are 16,647 Croats, Orthodox Christians
History
Croat-Slavonic classes persistently demanded that the military-provincial authorities prevent the escape of serfs to the Military Frontier, that is, returning of runaway serfs who fled to the Krajina area. In 1635, Bishop Franjo Ergelski of Zagreb claimed that among Orthodox Vlachs nearly half were Catholics and that serfs who fled to the Vlachs abandoned the Catholic faith and convert to Orthodoxy. Orthodox priests according to Bishop Ergelski baptized Catholic children and performed other religious services for them. At this point, it is impossible to determine numerical migration data, but since the Parliament attached great importance to the issue of 'runaway serfs', it can be assumed that migration was extensive.There are records in the literature of the late 18th and early 19th centurie that point to the existence of Orthodox Croats. D. Teleki von Szék claims in 1795 that Croats were mostly Catholics and that to a lesser extent Grenzers of Military Frontier belong the Greek Orthodox Church . An 18th-century source after describing the fighting in which Croatian units participated, says that "there were three Greek priests with the Croats and two with the Hungarians. The Austrian writer Carl Christian Viktor writes in his book "Chronicon viennense" 1790 how the "Turkish Croats" invaded the emperor's land and plundered villages under the protection of "Pasha and Sanjak", while the "emperor Croats" in turn pursued those robbers and plundered the villages of "Turkish Croats". It can be assumed that part of the Turkish Croats are and Orthodox. According to Emperor Joseph II (1785) in addition to Catholic Croats, there were also Croats of "Greek religion" Johann Severin Vater in the book "Mithridates" from 1809 mentions "Croats of the Greek religion" and "Greek Croats" That the Orthodox were not all considered as Serbs but many as Croats not in the regional sense can be conclude on the basis of the national self-determination of their descendants who as migrants were arriving by ships to America via Ellis Island near New York. Statements of emigrants were recorded by US officials or retrieved from shipping lists and entered into a computer database that covers the period 1892-1924. The database is available at the linkRecords that testify existence of Orthodox who called themselves as Croats and came from western and southwestern jekavian area exist in large numbers. in a book "Trip to Constantinople" in 1886 talking with the Balkan peoples that live in Constantinople and they mentione Vlachs. This is part of the conversation: Tkalcevic says "How Croats, but they call themselves as Serbs in homeland if they are Orthodox. The person from Constantinople answers "I do not know how someone calling himself now in homeland because I have been in Constantinople for a long time but everyone here either Vlachs or Catholics call themselves as Croats . It's a name from old times!"Existence of Croats as Orthodox priests in the late 19th century testifies Serbian newspaper Srbobran in which was stated complaint that among Orthodox priests exist some "Orthodox Croats" priests.
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