Andrija Kačić Miošić

Who was Andrija Kačić Miošić?

Andrija Kačić Miošić was a Croatian poet and Franciscan monk.

Born in Brist near Makarska, he became a Franciscan monk. He was educated in Zaostrog monastery and Buda. He used to teach philosophy in Zaostrog and Sumartin on Brač.

His most important work is Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskog, a history in verse, in which Kačić Miočić, influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment, tried to spread literacy and modern ideas among common people. It was the most popular book in the Croatian-speaking lands for more than a century. It also played a key role in the victory of the Shtokavian dialect as the standard Croatian language. It contain poems about Skanderbeg which were basis for tragedy Skenderbeg written by Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski in the 19th century. They were also basis for Život i viteška voevanja slavnog kneza epirskog Đorđa Kastriota Skenderbega written by Jovan Sterija Popović in 1828.

Using the ten-syllable verse of folk poetry and relying on Mavro Orbini and Pavao Ritter Vitezović, Kačić Miošić narrates and sings about the history of the Slavic peoples from the antiquity to his age.