2003440th Anniversary of the Birth of Friar Matija Divkovic - Set

Father Matija Divković was born in Jelaške near Olov in 1563, and he died in 1631 in Olov. He completed his schooling in Italy, and was Parish priest in Sarajevo and Kresevo. He is the founder of the Franciscan Literary Order and literature in general in the vernacular in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most precious character of Divković’s texts, primarily in his capital collection of sermons Besiede (Orations)… is the great level of closeness, warmth, the illustrative sermons, their wholeness and believability. Thanks to these literary qualities, many of Divković’s tales have been seen as lively and interesting literary works, even when not read in the religious context of the time. Furthermore, Divković is also significant as a writer who, in founding one literary tradition, immediately gave that tradition virtually all of its dominant forms. As a writer of sermons, he is unsurpassable, while he also wrote verse and dialogues, which present the first beginnings of dramatic speech in Bosnian-Croatian literature. Divković’s linguistic actions were also of great significant.