Police suspect Croatian nun stabbed herself, falsely reported attack

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

Police in Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb suspect that a nun stabbed herself and then falsely reported that she had been attacked, according to a report published by the Zagreb Police Department.

The department is filing a criminal complaint against the 35-year-old nun, Sister Marija Tatjana Zrno, after a four-day investigation into the allegations. The initial incident made national headlines, with many people first speculating it was a religiously motivated attack.

According to the report, Zrno told police that an unknown perpetrator approached her with a knife and stabbed her, after which she was treated at the Sisters of Charity Hospital in Zagreb for minor injuries.

However, police allege their investigation confirmed that Zrno purchased the weapon herself at a store in the Zagreb area. The police allege that their investigation determined that she inflicted the injury on herself.

The report alleges that Zrno falsely reported the criminal offense with the intent of misleading the police, despite being aware that filing a false report carries a penalty. The police are filing a criminal complaint with the Municipal State Attorney’s office.

The Archdiocese of Zagreb and the Episcopal Conference of Croatia, which represents the country’s Catholic bishops, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zrno, who belongs to the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul Croatia and teaches religion at an elementary school in Zagreb, was hospitalized with the injuries on Nov. 28 after she said she was stabbed in the city’s Malešnica neighborhood.

The Sisters of Charity Hospital said in a statement to Net.hr that Zrno entered the surgical ward around 3 p.m. with an injury inflicted by a sharp object in the abdominal wall area. The injuries were not life-threatening, and the hospital provided medical treatment and alerted the police, according to the statement.

According to the police report, she was discharged on Dec. 1.

The Croatian government’s official X account posted that police and health workers took all necessary measures and actions and launched an investigation. The Ministry of Science, Education, and Youth had contacted the school principal to provide a psychological crisis intervention team to assist colleagues and students.

Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević told local media at the time that his primary focus was on Zrno’s recovery but asked police to fully investigate the incident and publish their findings as soon as possible, noting that many people in the country were upset about the news.

Initial speculation on social media and in some media reports asserted that unnamed sources had claimed an attacker was a migrant who shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the stabbing. 

The police report said the department’s criminal investigation found those claims to be false and said the department fully refutes those claims.

Amid the media speculation and aggressive discourse surrounding the incident initially, a Croatian priest named Father Stjepan Ivan Horvat posted on Instagram that Catholics are called to grow in love for God and man and warned against calls for vengeance that he had seen.

He quoted the words of Jesus Christ in John 15:18-20: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.” 

“If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/268187/croatian-police-investigate-after-nun-hospitalized-with-stab-wounds