Ivan Ančić

Ivan Ančić OFM (Croatian pronunciation: [ǐʋan âːnt͡ʃit͡ɕ]; 11 February 1624 – 24 July 1685) was a Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian Franciscan priest and religious writer in the Catholic Revival tradition. Ančić, a native of Lipa in the region of Duvno, joined the Franciscan order in Bosnia and received an education in the Franciscan friaries in Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy. He served as a parish priest in his home province of Duvno and held various offices in several locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After arriving in Ancona in 1674, he began publishing his religious works written in Shtokavian dialect of Illyrian, a Slavic language spoken in regions historically associated with Croatia. Ančić is the first Bosnian Franciscan to write using the Latin alphabet in a commoners' language.