Friar Grgo Martic

Father Grgo Martić was born in Rastovača near Posušje on January 22nd 1822. After joining the Franciscan order in 1834 he is educated in the convent in Kreševo, a then continues his schooling in the Gymnasium of Požega. After high school he goes off to study in Zagreb and to the cathedral Biograd. In Zagreb he met the leaders of the Illyrian movement, which was the crucial moment in Martić’s poetic orientation. In 1845 he is ordained as a priest and carries out as a priest in various parishes of the Kreševo convent.

The influence of Mažuranić and the tradition of folk songs formed father Grgo as an epic poet (Osvetnici), a travel writer (Put u Dubrovnik), and after his death his work Zapamćenja was printed, probably the first work of a memorial style in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a significant contribution to everybody that studies the cultural and general history of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the 19th century. Father Grgo worked on his literary creations almost 60 years during which he wrote over 100.000 verses.
Besides the fact that he knew the classic languages, he spoke German, French, Italian, Hungarian and Turkish. He was also the unofficial diplomatic consultant to many foreign consuls in Bosnia, and he maintained very close relations with Turkish magnates of that time such as Omer – paša Latas.

The specific communication skills of father Grgo Martić are best seen through the preserved writings in the Franciscan convent in Kreševo. Probably none of his fellow coevals from the south Slavic region had such a detailed correspondence with such a number of people of various profiles.