Background
Mandić was born in Lise, Herzegovina (present-day Široki Brijeg).
Mandić was born in Lise, Herzegovina (present-day Široki Brijeg).
He completed his primary education in Široki Brijeg, where he attended the famous Franciscan high school, but graduated from the last two years in Mostar. He studied theology at Fribourg and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in church history.
The Franciscan Province of Herzegovina elected him as their head He was in Rome when war broke out in the Balkans in April 1941. Mandić controlled San Girolamo ratline"s finances.
He arranged the laundering of Ustasha money likely via the Franciscans Vatican Bank accounts to which he had access and placed the Franciscan printing presses at the disposal of the Ustasha to print false identity information for war criminals to escape from justice after the Holocaust using ratline escapes.
Other priests involved in the San Girolamo ratline included: Krunoslav Draganović, Dragutin Kamber, Vilim Cecelja (based in Austria) and Karlo Petranović (based in Genoa).
