Sava Mrkalj

Mrkalj was born in the hamlet of Sjeničak in Kordun, at the time Military Frontier, Austrian Empire, now Croatia.[1] His contemporaries were poets and writers Lukijan Mušicki, Ivan Jugović, Sima Milutinović Sarajlija, Jeremija Gagić, Stevan Živković (Telemak), Pavle Solarić, and philologists Luka Milovanov Georgijević (1784–1828), Jernej Kopitar, Peter P. Dubrovsky, and Johann Christoph Adelung.Mrkalj gave his support to Stefanović Karadžić and Kopitar during the Serbian Language Controversy, but retracted everything he wrote when he was threatened with defrocking.His suggestion was considered radical and indeed blasphemous (since the original Cyrillic in use by the Serbian Orthodox Church at the time had allegedly been created by Cyril and Methodius), so Mrkalj received so much offensive criticism from the church hierarchy that he decided to be tonsured as a monk to prove his orthodoxy in 1811, but was so disappointed with the monastic life that he left the order in 1813.His earliest poem Odi, Kirilu Živkoviću (An Ode to Kiril Zhivkovich), dates from his university days in 1805; Jao!
KordunMilitary FrontierAustrian EmpireCroatiaViennaLinguisticsphilologypoetrySerbian languageSerbian CyrilliclinguistgrammarianphilologistVuk KaradžićZagrebPest UniversityJohann Christoph AdelungVuk Stefanović KaradžićLukijan MušickiSima Milutinović SarajlijaPavle SolarićJernej KopitarPeter P. DubrovskydefrockingCyrillicSerbian Orthodox ChurchCyril and MethodiusKiril ZhivkovichHoraceDositej ObradovićJovan SkerlićMilan MogušKarlovacFrankfurt am Main