Dositej Obradović
Dositej Obradović (; Čakovo, Habsburg Monarchy, 17 February 1739 – Belgrade, Serbia, 7 April 1811) was a Serbian writer, biographer, diarist, philosopher, pedagogue, educational reformer, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education of Serbia. An influential protagonist of the Serbian national and cultural renaissance, he advocated Enlightenment and rationalist ideas, while remaining a Serbian patriot and an adherent of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Both Dositej Obradović and Teodor Janković-Mirijevski viewed teaching as a subject most worthy of study and they are therefore known, each in his own right, as the fathers of pedagogy in Serbia, Austria and Russia . In fact, they were instrumental in making education a separate branch of knowledge, particularly with the advent of the first teachers' colleges in the 18th century. Life. Dositej Obradović was born Dimitrije Obradović at the village of Čakovo (now Ciacova, Timiş County, Romania) in Banat, probably in 1739. From an early age, he was possessed with a passion for study. Obradović grew up bilingual (in Serbian and Romanian) and learned classical Greek, Latin, modern Greek, German, English, French, Russian, Albanian and Italian. On 17 February 1757 he became a monk in the Serb Orthodox monastery of Hopovo, in the Srem  region, and acquired the name "Dositej" (Dositheus). He translated into Serbian many European classics, including "Aesop's Fables". Having devoured the contents of the monastery library, he hungered for further learning. On 2 November 1760 he left the monastery of Hopovo, bound for Hilandar, Mount Athos. For forty years, he traveled Europe and Asia Minor: Albania, Dalmatia, Corfu, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Romania, France, Russia, England, Italy, Poland. Finally he went to Belgrade, at the invitation of Karađorđe Petrović, to become, in the newly organized government, Serbia's first minister of education. Wherever he went during the early years, he  attended lectures at the best schools in these locations. At University of Halle, he was a student of Johann Eberhard who himself was a disciple of Christian Wolf. From Dositej’s recollections of his early years spent in the monastery we also learn about the enlightened bishop of Temišvar, Georgije Popović, and amongst his castigation of monastics we ﬁnd words of praise for Dositej’s rationalist hegumen at Hopovo monastery. Other less known Enlightenment ﬁgures among the Serbs who were Dositej’s precursors such as Dionisije Novaković, Visarion Pavlović, Dimitrie Eustatievici, Simeon Končarević, Vasilije Jovanović-Brkić or contemporaries, such as  Zaharije Orfelin, Jovan Rajić, Simeon Piščević, Teodor Janković-Mirijevski all evolved from scholastic, ecclesiastical or military milieus. Obradović wrote first individual biographies and quickly the genre expanded to the form of biographical collection modelled on examples of Nepos, Suetonius, Plutarch, or Diogenes Laertius. Obradović helped introduce to the Serbs the literature of certain western European countries. He and Vuk Karadžić, whom Obradović influenced, are recognized as the fathers of modern Serbian literature. Because the Serbian populace often suffered famine, Obradović also introduced potato cultivation to Serbia. Dositej Obradović died in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1811.