Venerable Miroslav Imotski

Miroslav Imotski, born Miroslav Lončar (Nebriževac, 1959 – near Imotski, July 5, 1992), was a Serbian Orthodox new martyr who suffered a martyr's death. Members of the Croatian Armed Forces abducted him while he was working in a field and took him in an unknown direction. His mother found only his footwear and a piece of bread and bacon, which he had brought for a meal, left in the field. He was massacred and killed at an unknown location on July 5, 1992. His body was found crucified in the shape of a cross on a rock, in a manner similar to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Later testimonies state that Miroslav was tortured and forced to spit on an Orthodox cross, which he refused to do until the very end. Due to the manner of his execution, his martyr's death, and his perseverance in faith, the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized him as a venerable new martyr of Serbia, along with thousands of other Serbian victims from the Imotska Krajina region. At the time of his death, the chief of the police station in Imotski was Ivan Todorić. The Croatian police still classify his death as an unsolved case, although rumors in Imotski suggest that the killers are known and that an acquaintance of Lončar, a driver of an orange van who was a member of the Croatian Army at the time, was one of the primary participants in the murder.