At the initiative of the Principality of Serbia, a special society was established in Bosnia to promote the Serbian name and identity. In 1863, the monk Teofil Petranović founded in Sarajevo the “Society for the Propagation of Serbian Identity and the Introduction of the Serbian Name.” Teachers and priests were assigned a particularly important role in this effort.

The main objective of the Society was the spread of the “Serb” designation. A key activity involved establishing contacts with Orthodox priests across Bosnia, as well as with as many merchants and teachers as possible. These individuals were instructed to raise awareness among the local population, encouraging them to stop identifying as Bosniak, Vlach, or simply Christian, and to adopt the Serbian identity instead.

In short, the Serbian national identity among the Orthodox populations of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia was formed after the 1830s. It took time for this identity to take root, but the process ultimately succeeded in re-identifying many Orthodox communities as Serbs.