The Albanian Orthodox Church

A Political History, 1878–1945

Ardit Bido

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781138354722
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429755460
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Religion in Albania has had a complicated history, with Orthodoxy, Bektashi and Sunni Islam, Catholicism coexisting throughout much of the history of this Balkan nation. This book traces the rise of the Albanian Orthodox Church from the beginnings of Albanian nationalist movements in the late nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War and the Communist takeover. It examines the struggles of the Albanian state and Church to establish the Church's independence from foreign influence amid a complex geopolitical interplay between Albania, neighbouring Greece and its powerful Ecumenical Patriarchate; the Italian and Yugoslav interference, and the shifting international political circumstances. The book argues that Greece's involvement in the Albanian "ecclesiastical issue" was primarily motivated by political and territorial aspirations, as Athens sought to undermine the newly established Albanian state by controlling its Orthodox Church through pro-Greek bishops appointed by the Patriarchate. With its independence finally recognized in 1937, the Albanian Orthodox Church soon faced new challenges with the Italian, and later German, occupation of the country during the Second World War: the Church's expansion into Kosovo, the Italian effort to place the Church under papal authority, and, the ultimate threat, the imminent victory of Communist forces.

1 Origin of the Albanian ecclesiastical issue, 1878–1918

Ecclesiastical issue during the Albanian National Renaissance, 1878–1908

For Albanians who for four centuries had been living under Ottoman Turkish rule, the short-lived League of Prizren (1878–1879) marked the beginning of a national renaissance that spread through all religious communities, seeking a unified nation based on ethnic affiliation regardless of creed. As the League’s philosophy gained support, neighbouring Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate began to alter their stance towards the Orthodox communities in Albania. The Orthodox faithful of Elbasan and Korça, the two Albanian cities with the fewest Hellenists, strongly embraced the fledgling nationalist movement and thus created friction with Greece.¹

In an official 1879 memorandum, the metropolitan of Dryinopolis, based in Gjirokastra, Anthim Gjeci (1876–1880), a Hellenist Albanian, strongly denounced the new Albanian alphabet – devised and published by the prominent nationalists Pashko Vasa, Sami Frashëri, and Jani Vreto – and any books printed in Albanian. Vreto later wrote (in 1892) that Anthim had attached immortal disgrace to his own name by denouncing and cursing his mother tongue, a disgrace a thousand times worse than changing one’s faith.² The official position of the metropolitanates in Chameria³ – Ioannina, Preveza, and Paramythia – was even harsher. In this historically contested region, which today is located in Greece, the flourishing patriotic movement failed to overcome the obstacles put by the local Greek bishops. Following the League of Prizren, a Gospel appeared in the Albanian language, most likely the translation of Kostandin Kristoforidhi, which was subsequently used in the province. In 1881, Muslim and Orthodox Albanians living in Chameria assembled in the seaside town of Preveza and requested that the Great Powers recognize the Albanian nation and block Greece from annexing these territories. Even earlier, on 20 June 1880, the Committee of Margëlliç⁴ had made a similar plea to preserve the territorial integrity of Ottoman Albania.⁵

The struggle for national identity intensified after nationalists established the first Albanian-language school, in Korça in 1887. Before this, the Ottoman authorities had forbidden the formal teaching of Albanian, in accord with the millet principle, by which Orthodox schools used Greek, Catholic schools used Latin, and Muslim educational institutions instructed pupils in Turkish. The Greek metropolitan of Korça, Filotheos Kostandinides (1885–1893), continually pressed Ottoman officials to close the Albanian school. The local authorities, however, denied his request, fearing conflict with the Albanians, with whom they had reached a modus vivendi following the relative failure of the Prizren League. Filotheos then excommunicated Thanas Sina, the school’s first headmaster, and threatened to excommunicate all the teachers too, as well as any parents who dared send their children to study there.⁶

Korça would ultimately be at the forefront of the growing Albanian ecclesiastical movement. In 1888, Orthodox patriots in the city’s cathedral petitioned the metropolitan to hold the liturgy in Albanian, but Filotheos refused and, in order to continue the liturgy in Greek, had to summon the Ottoman gendarmerie, made up of Muslims.⁷ Ten years later, in 1891, tensions rose to the surface in Korça after the death of a man named Suli, a supporter of Sina’s successor, Gjerasim Qirjazi. Filotheos refused to bury Suli in any of Korça’s Orthodox cemeteries, a decision that led many in the metropolitan’s flock to openly oppose the Church. Suli was then buried in a newly built cemetery, which became known as Varreza e të Padëshiruarve (the Graveyard of the Unwanted).⁸

Petro Nini Luarasi, the deputy headmaster of Qirjazi’s school, played an important role in this conflict. With the aid of local residents, he tried to spread Albanian education to Korça and the surrounding areas. Inspired by Petro Nini Luarasi, a village priest named Stefan Luarasi began holding the liturgy in Albanian and teaching children in their mother tongue. The metropolitan of Kostur⁹ excommunicated Stefan Luarasi and, with the help of the Ottoman gendarmerie, forced him into exile.¹⁰ The metropolitan of Kostur wrote that Albanian was not a true language and would twist the conscience of the Orthodox mind.¹¹

The situation was different in central Albania. In 1867, the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed Visarion, an Albanian from Elbasan, as the metropolitan of Durrës. Visarion allowed teaching in Albanian in the schools of Elbasan, Tirana, and Durrës.¹² However, his pro-Albanian approach led the Patriarchate to consider him the worst possible choice for the Durrës diocese, so he was succeeded by Metropolitans Prokopios Lazaridis (from 1899 to 1906) and Ioannis Diakoumakis (from 1906 to 1911). Under Metropolitan Ioannis, pupils in Durrës schools had to pledge, under the threat of grave punishment, not to speak Albanian with each other.¹³

The metropolitanate of Florina, in what today is north-western Greece, also had a significant Albanian population. Negovani¹⁴ was one of three Albanian villages where displaced Albanians from the Konica region had lived for several centuries. Reverend Kristo Negovani, the village priest and teacher, began a concerted effort to spread the use of Albanian in schools and churches, publishing nine educational religious texts in Albanian. He continued preaching and instructing in Albanian until 1905, when the metropolitan was apprised of his activities. On 10 February 1905, Reverend Kristo held the liturgy in Albanian in the presence of the metropolitan, who, cursing the priest, stormed angrily out of the service. Two days later, Kristo was murdered along with his brother and four other Albanian patriots.¹⁵ On 9 September 1906, an armed group led by Albanian revolutionary guerrillas – the brothers Çerçiz and Bajo Topulli – and the activist and poet Mihal Grameno, took revenge by assassinating the metropolitan of Korça, Fotios Kalpidis.

The first substantial push to establish an Albanian Orthodox Church came from the United States of America. Theofan (“Fan”) Noli, who was born in an Albanian village near Adrianople, in eastern Thrace,¹⁶ had lived in Greece and Egypt before making his way to the United States. He believed that Albanians could achieve independence only if they united across social classes and religions.¹⁷ In America, Noli’s efforts towards the establishment of an Albanian Orthodox Church were done in cooperation with his employer, Sotir Peçi, the founder and publisher of the Albanian-language newspaper Kombi (The Nation), and Petro Nini Luarasi, who due to his conflict with the metropolitan of Kostur, had fled to the United States in 1904. The ideas of these three men coalesced after Kristaq Dishnica, an Albanian immigrant in Worcester, near Boston, Massachusetts, passed away in July 1907. Worcester’s Greek Orthodox churches did not allow a religious funeral for Dishnica, who had refused to call himself Greek Orthodox and instead joined the Albanian national movement. The American metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Antioch followed the Greek churches’ example, and Dishnica was buried without religious rites.¹⁸ Consequently, the Albanian Orthodox community in Worcester founded the religious association Nderi Shqiptar (Albanian Honour), which sought to resolve the ecclesiastical issue. This development caused the Greek Church to send Reverend Zaharia, an Albanian-speaking Greek priest from the villages near Gjirokastra,¹⁹ to Massachusetts to rectify the matter. However, Nderi Shqiptar rejected this solution since Zaharia continued to hold the liturgy in Greek, contrary to the wishes of the Massachusetts Albanians.²⁰

Nderi Shqiptar set up a commission that selected Fan Noli to be ordained as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, which was not subject to any Greek influence. Noli met with the Russian Archbishop Platon Fyodorovich Rozhdestvensky (in office 1907–1914, 1922–1934), who ordained him as a deacon and a priest on 8 March 1908. That same day, Noli performed his first service, baptizing the daughter of the leader of the Arbëreshë association. Two weeks later, as Petro Nini Luarasi sang the psalms, Noli held the first liturgy in Albanian. Noli said that the religious institutions in Albania had prevented his compatriots from uniting and blamed the cunning of Greek politicians who tried to present Albanian as a language cursed by Christ. Noli established Orthodox communities and churches in a number of New England towns and translated the first religious services into Albanian.²¹ The Albanian press praised Reverend Theofan, and his name quickly spread to all centres of the Albanian national movement. He received numerous invitations to hold the Orthodox liturgy in Albanian, not only from Albania, but also from Albanian diaspora settlements in the United States and in the Balkans.²²

The Albanian diaspora in Romania was another important hub for the growing ecclesiastical movement at the turn of the century. In a meeting on 27 May 1900, the Drita (Light) association in Bucharest made the establishment of an independent Albanian Church its main objective. Drita sought to create an independent Albanian state comprised of the four Ottoman vilayets inhabited by Albanians, with Albanian as its official language; the organization also requested that the words “Christian, Albanian” replace “Greek religion” or “Slavic religion” in the Ottoman passports of Christian Albanians.²³ Among other things, they created an Albanian church choir. In 1908, this choir was the first to sing the future Albanian national anthem, as adapted by Aleksandër Stavre Drenova, the secretary of the Albanian c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Origin of the Albanian ecclesiastical issue, 1878–1918
• 2 Preparations for the establishment of the Albanian Church, 1918–1921
• 3 Declaration of autocephaly and its consequences, 1921–1924
• 4 Efforts towards the recognition of autocephaly, 1924–1928
• 5 Establishment of the Holy Synod and the Congress of Korça, 1928–1929
• 6 Consolidation, recognition, and expansion to Kosovo, 1929–1945
• Bibliography
• Index