A poet and translator, bard of the Slovak literature. He was born in Borský Mikuláš, to the family of a peasant. He acquired his education at a secondary grammar school in Skalica, Bratislava and later in Trnava, where he studied theology. Ján Hollý worked as a chaplain in Pobedim and Hlohovec. In 1814, he became a parish priest in Madunice, where he lived in poverty for twenty nine years. This is also where he wrote his whole poetry work. It is a well-known fact that the poet composed his poems in the nearby grove called "Mlíč". After the fire during which he lost his sight, Hollý moved to his friend Martin Lackovič, a priest living in nearby Dobrá Voda. It was in this village in 1843, where he was visited by Ľudovít Štúr, Michal Miloslav Hodža and Jozef Miloslav Hurban, and asked to approve a new version of standard Slovak. His most famous works are the idyllic poems “Selanky” and epics “Svatopluk” and “Cyrilometodiáda”. Except for his own texts, he translated also Homer, Vergil, Ovid, Horace and others, and created the collection of religious songs, “Katolícky spevník”. He died in Dobrá Voda in 1849.

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