Grgo Martić


Fra Grgo Martić, also known as Grga or Mato Martić, was a Bosnian friar and writer in the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena.

Biography

Martić was born in Rastovača village near Posušje, Eyalet of Bosnia, Ottoman Empire. He was educated in Zagreb and Pest, and ordained on Christmas Day, 1844. He served for three years in Kreševo and Osova.
From 1851 to 1879 he served as a parish priest in Sarajevo. As a friar of the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena, Martić served the majority of his life, and carried out most of his work while at the Franciscan monastery St. Catharine in Kreševo.
In his early life Martić was a nationalist and romanticist, before switching to a more moderate view.
Martić worked as a writer and translator, translating works of Homer and Goethe into Serbo-Croatian language. At the time of the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was politically active on behalf of the Roman Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his youth he was a supporter of Illyrian movement. Later he became a supporter of the unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia. He opened a school in Kreševo in 1847 and a gymnasium in Sarajevo.

Influences and legacy

His best-known literary work was Osvetnici, an epic about the struggle against Ottoman rule.
Martić made contributions to Albanian culture as well, influencing young Albanian writer Gjergj Fishta who attended Franciscan schools in Kreševo where he met Martić and Croatian writer Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević, who at that time also lived in Bosnia.