Katarina Vukcic-Kosaca

The children of Queen Katarina and King Stjepan Tomas then fell into captivity. . At that time Sigismund was 14 years old, and Katarina was 10 years of age. They were taken to Constantinople and were converted to the Muslim religion. Queen Katarina only escaped captivity because she was at the time visiting her brother, Vladislav, who was by then the ruler in Herzegovina. He helped her make her way to the free city of Dubrovnik, where she stayed a time. From Dubrovnik, she and her faithful lady-waiting, Pavka Mirkovic went to Rome. In Rome, Pope Paul II welcomed her and she lived reasonable comfort. Her time was spent attempting to ransom her children, attempting to aid efforts to free Bosnia from foreign rule, or doing good works. She was a Franciscan Tertiary. Four days before her death she sent for one of the Croatian monks in the St. Jerome monastery and dictated her will to him. She willed Bosnia to the Holy See in the event that her children were never recovered and never reconverted to Catholicism. The children were never recovered. They grew up in Turkey, the son became governor of Karas, the daughter was married to a man who later was Sultan. Pope Paul II beatified Queen Katarina. Until the beatification of Ivan Merz, she was the only Bosnian beatified. To this day, Bosnians regard her as a role model for women. To this day women from Kraljeva Sutjeska wear black scarves, even at weddings, in memory of Queen Katarina. She and her faithful lady in waiting, Pavka Mirkovic are both buried in Aracoeli church, in Rome. There are full sized relief statues of them over the graves, and a memorial stone for Queen Katarina. Her grave is under the present location of the altar. There are two extant portraits of her, one in the Capitol Museum in Rome, done when she was relatively young, one portrays her in maturity. Both are attributed to Bellini, who interestingly enough painted Sultan Mehmet II from life as well. Queen Katarina is portrayed on stamps issued by the Croatian government, and by the Bosnian government.