In 1924 he finished the classical gymnasium in Osijek, and in 1929 he graduated in Slavic and Germanic studies at the University of Zagreb.

In 1948 he received a position of docent for Slavic philology, with special care for Old Church Slavonic.

He also served as the head of the Linguistic department of Balkan commission (founded by Vatroslav Jagić in 1897) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

He was a regular member of the Austrian as well as the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.

[3] In 1952, together with Svetozar Rittig and Vjekoslav Štefanić, he founded the Old Church Slavonic Institute in Zagreb,[1] under whose patronage the journal Slovo was published.