little is known about his life. he first appears in 1526 when he transcribed a prayer book in which he is desperate about the end of the world coming in near future. until 1569 he lived in kratovo, at the time an important town and mining center, where he was a priest ("pop"). after that date we find him in wallachia where in 1580 he signed one evangelion as “priest jovan, a serb from the town of kratovo” ("srbin od mesta kratova"). in wallachia he is also mentioned as "protopop", "archpriest". migrations of revered men of church to wallachia were not uncommon in those days, since there they would find patronage from christian princes or rich landowners, a strata that did not exist in the ottoman empire.