FAMOUS CROATS, GRGO MARTIĆ

Fr. Grgo Martić (Grga, Mato) was a participant in the Croatian National Revival Movement, poet, travel writer, collector of oral poems, participant in the Illyrian movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, correspondent in Croatian periodicals and translator. Born on 24 January 1822 in Rastovača near Posušje in Herzegovina, he entered a Franciscan monastery at the age of twelve (1834), attended high school in Kreševo and Požega, graduated in philosophy in Zagreb, and in theological studies in Stolni Biograd in Hungary (Székesfehérvár). He was ordained in 1844 in Travnik. He traveled through Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria, Italy and Croatian regions, and he was well-versed in classical and modern languages. He worked as a priest in several places in Bosnia: until 1878 he was a parish priest in Sarajevo and a representative of the Franciscan Province in the Council for Relations with Turkey and Consular Authorities, head of the Franciscan People's Agency of Sarajevo, and from 1878 he lived in Kreševo in a Franciscan monastery. He is known for his patriotic saying from 1860: “Woe to the people without brotherly love, much like to Bosnia without the land of Croatia.” His work is synonymous with writing for a wide readership. He published memoirs, historical and narrative, epic and occasional poetry, political and religious works, as well as textbooks in Zagreb, Osijek, Đakovo and Sarajevo. At the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in Rome, he read his poem dedicated to Christopher Columbus. Together with Ivan Frano Jukić, he prepared a collection of epic poems, Folk Songs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1858). The epic poems Avengers (1893), written in the decasyllable, enjoyed great popularity, as did other individual poems. In his poetic travelogues, he benevolently portrayed all the peoples inhabiting Bosnia and Herzegovina (Journey to Dubrovnik from Kreševo in 1882, Journey to Makarska in 1884). The religious poem Defense of Biograd in 1456: Celebration of St. John of Capistrano (1887) is dedicated to the defense of Christians from the Turkish invasion, and Devotees (1895), modeled on Gundulić's Tears of the Prodigal Son, speaks of persons and events from the Catholic Church. He died on 30 August 1905 in Kreševo, Bosnia. Memoires (1829–1878), autobiographical memories of life and encounters with people who played an important role in the last decades of Turkish rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina were published posthumously.