The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit was one of the most important monastic orders in the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia. On the level of the Kingdom, only the Franciscans had more friaries. The Pauline role in shaping relations between several entities within the Kingdom, together with their monastic and economic transformation, influenced their local communities. Thus, researching the Paulines provides information not just about their monastic history but it also offers some insights about their local communities, benefactors, and the connections developed among them.

In this article, I will deal with two Pauline littoral monasteries near Senj – Holy Savior (Sv. Spas) in Ljubotina and St. Helen (Sv. Jelena) in Vlaška draga, both part of the Pauline vicariate of Gvozd, which included all the monasteries south of the hill Petrova Gora. Head of the vicariate was St. Nicholas (Sv. Nikola) in Gvozd near Modruš. The exact time of the establishment of the vicariate is unknown, but one can follow its existence along with the St. Nicholas monastery. This vicariate had some particularities; such predicaments as the usage of language and the Glagolitic script. In addition, most of the monasteries were either founded or to some extent supported by the Frankapan family. By taking the Frankapan patronage into consideration and putting it into the context of the Pauline economic and monastic transformation and development, both on the local and Kingdom-wide scales, one should be able to attest several different patterns and local peculiarities.

When trying to establish clear connections (especially the nature of those connections) between two complex entities such as an aristocratic family and a monastic order, one has to take into consideration all available sources. As there are still no systematic archeological surveys of the Pauline monasteries, the backbone of this article is the written sources, especially grants and donations given by the various members of the local communities, such as the aristocracy, the lesser nobility, or rich burghers to the Pauline monasteries. In addition, most of the sources are legal documents such as foundation charters, donations, tax and toll exemptions, testaments, judicial decisions, and so forth. The time scope of this research covers the period from the foundation of the given houses to their abandonment or desolation in the first decades of the sixteenth century.