Vinko Puljić (; born 8 September 1945) is a Bosnian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been a cardinal since 1994. He was the archbishop of Vrhbosna from 1991 to 2022. Early life and education The twelfth of thirteen children, Vinko Puljić was born in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Yugoslavia), to Ivan and Kaja Puljić. His mother died when he was three-years-old, and his father then remarried. In addition to his family, young Vinko's spiritual formation was deeply influenced by the Trappist Mariastern Abbey, located not far from his native village. One of the monks helped Vinko's father to send his son to the minor seminary of Zagreb. Father Ante Artner sold his motorbike and gave the proceeds to Vinko's father, who did not have enough money to pay his board there. Vinko then studied philosophy and theology at the major seminary of Đakovo. Priesthood Puljić was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Stjepan Bauerlein on 29 June 1970, and then served as a chaplain in the Diocese of Banja Luka until 1973, whence he became an official of the diocesan curia. He was a parish priest in Sasina from June to November 1973, and in Ravska from 1973 to 1978. In 1978, he was named spiritual director of the minor seminary of Zadar. During this time, he also served as a confessor at a Benedictine monastery and organized spiritual retreats for priests, seminarians, and nuns. In 1987, he returned to the Diocese of Banja Luka, where he served as a parish priest in Bosanska Gradiška. He was later transferred to Sarajevo in 1990 as vice-rector of the Sarajevo major seminary. Episcopal ministry On 19 November 1990 Puljić was appointed Archbishop of Vrhbosna by Pope John Paul II. He thus became the sixth archbishop of that see after the reconstruction of the ordinary ecclesiastical hierarchy in 1881 after the Ottoman occupational rule which had lasted more than four centuries. He received his episcopal consecration on 6 January 1991 from John Paul II himself, with archbishops Giovanni Battista Re and Justin Francis Rigali serving as co-consecrators, at St. Peter's Basilica. Puljić was created Cardinal-Priest of S. Chiara a Vigna Clara by John Paul II in the consistory of 26 November 1994. He was 49 years old when he became the youngest member of the College of Cardinals. On 18 October 2001 he was invested as bailiff