He is known to have composed only a handful of works, most famously the musical accompaniment to Antun Mihanović's patriotic poem Horvatska domovina ("Croatian Homeland").

The piece, under the title Lijepa naša domovino, was selected by popular acclaim as the anthem of the Croatian people at an economic exhibition in Zagreb in 1891.

A veteran of the Second and Third Italian War of Independence, Runjanin ultimately attained the rank of colonel, and served for two years in the Croatian Parliament beginning in 1865.

He entered the Imperial Austrian Army on 26 December 1838, as a recruit of the Third Border Infantry Regiment in Ogulin, on the Military Frontier with the Ottoman Empire.

[8] On 21 July 1861, a certain "Captain Runjanin" organized a torch-light procession through the town of Topusko to commemorate the visit of the Serbian linguistic reformer Vuk Karadžić.

Runjanin was promoted to the rank of major on 24 April 1866, and shortly thereafter, he was mobilized to take part in another military conflict in Italy, which would come to be known as the Third Italian War of Independence.

He served there until 26 April 1871, when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and transferred to the 31st Infantry Regiment in Hermannstadt (modern-day Sibiu, Romania).

His funeral took place two days later at the Eastern Orthodox cemetery next to Novi Sad's Church of the Dormition, and afterwards, his belongings were sold at auction for a little over 20 florin.

[11] Runjanin belonged to the group of so-called "Illyrian composers", whom the scholars Robert A. Kann and Zdeněk V. David describe as "gifted amateurs, at best trained by the choirmaster at the local cathedral.

[13] In 1844, he composed the melody to the song Ljubimo te naša diko ("We Love You, Our Pride"), whose lyrics had been written by Ivan Trnski in honour of Josip Jelačić.

[15] The lyrics to the piece had originally been written more than a decade earlier by the lawyer Antun Mihanović, as part of a poem entitled Horvatska Domovina ("Croatian Homeland").

[16][c] In composing the melody, Runjanin was heavily inspired by the aria O sole più ratto from Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor.

[13] Several sources also attribute to Runjanin the melody of the Serbian patriotic song Rado ide Srbin u vojnike ("The Serb Gladly Joins the Army"), whose lyrics had been written by a cleric from Pančevo named Vasa Živković.

[20] In 1891, Lijepa naša domovino was selected by popular acclamation as the national anthem of the Croatian people at an exhibition of the Croatian–Slavonian Economic Association in Zagreb, where it was performed by a choir of 700 singers.

A similar inter-governmental initiative had been launched by the City of Zagreb in 2002, but fell apart after the Croatian side failed to secure the cooperation of Novi Sad's municipal government.