Jovan, was an Eastern Orthodox priest and his mother, Mara, was a housewife. Within a year of his birth, the Bosnia Vilayet was occupied by Austria-Hungary, bringing more than four centuries of Ottoman rule to a sudden end. Kočić's father had taken his priestly vows in 1873. In 1879, Kočić's mother died while giving birth to his younger brother Ilija, and his father decided to become a monk at the Gomionica Monastery, where he adopted the monastic name Gerasim. Following his mother's death, Kočić and his siblings, Milica and Ilija, were sent to live with their extended family in a peasant zadruga. Each member of the zadruga was assigned a particular role. Kočić was tasked with herding livestock. At the time, ninety percent of Bosnia's population was illiterate, and storytelling took on a predominantly oral character, as exemplified by the tradition of the gusle, a one-stringed instrument used to accompany the recitation of epic poetry, which was the primary form of entertainment in Serb peasant communities. Kočić remained illiterate until the age of eleven, when he was dispatched to Gomionica, where his father had since become abbot, to receive basic schooling. Kočić's stay at the monastery, during which he was taught the history of the Serbs and became acquainted with Serbian tradition and lore, left an indelible impression on him, and was to influence his future writing. In 1888, around the time Kočić arrived at Gomionica, his father was arrested by the Austro-Hungarian police for leading a demonstration against Crown Prince Rudolph during a state visit to Banja Luka, and sentenced to seven months' imprisonment. Kočić left Gomionica after two years and completed his primary education at the Eastern Orthodox religious school in Banja Luka, though he returned to the monastery every summer in order to spend time with his father. Kočić was the best student in his class at the religious school, and upon graduating in 1891, he departed for Sarajevo to attend high school at the First Sarajevo Gymnasium. During his first three years, he excelled in subjects such as mathematics, as well as Greek, Latin, German and Serbo-Croatian, which the Austro-Hungarians deemed the "language of the land" (zemaljski jezik), so as not to become entangled in local ethnolinguistic disputes. Kočić experienced a violent fit in his fourth year, swearing at a theology teacher and throwing a textbook at him over a poor grade. He was dismissed from