ALBANIA (Alb. Shqipëria or Shqipnia).
SUMMARY:
1. Geography
2. Christianity in Albania
3. Cultural history
4. The Greek-Albanian rite.
Albani, Francesco – Self-Portrait – Bologna, Pinacoteca.
ALBANI, FRANCESCO. – Self-Portrait – Bologna, Pinacoteca.
ALBANI, FRANCESCO. – It comprises the eastern Adriatic coast from the mouth of the Bojana to the Corfu Channel and the hinterland as far as the Albanian Alps and Lakes Ohrid and Prespa. Its area (28,700 sq. km.) is roughly equal to that of Piedmont. It is a mountainous, rugged country with flat, marshy coasts; hence it is sparsely populated (38 inhabitants per sq. km.) with 1.1 million souls, and has heavy emigration: over 1.5 million Albanians live outside the state’s borders (Serbia, Greece, overseas countries). The Albanians, who descend from the Illyrians, have well preserved their traditional characteristics, especially in the north (Ghegs), where Muslim infiltration has been less (the Tosks in the south are considered less pure). The population is divided into proud, turbulent tribes and clans, often at war (brigandage, vendettas). Linguistically unified, the Albanians are 69% Muslim, 20.7% Orthodox (in the south), and 10.3% Catholic (in the north).
Livestock raising (sheep, goats) is the predominant occupation (cheese, hides, eggs exported); agriculture (12% of total area) relies more on tree crops (olive, vine) than on cereals. Mineral resources are not lacking (iron, copper, chromium), but only petroleum (100,000 tons annually) has industrial importance. The capital, Tirana, and Scutari (30,000 inhabitants each) are the most notable settlements. There are no railways; ordinary roads are also deficient.
Having remained for centuries under Turkish rule, Albania became an independent principality in 1912; a republic in 1925, a kingdom in 1928, linked to Italy by a personal union after April 1939. Since January 1946 it has again been a republic under Soviet influence.
| Prefectures | Area in sq. km. | Census Population | Density per sq. km. | Capitals (population in thousands) |
|-------------|-----------------|-------------------|---------------------|------------------------------------|
| Agricolastro (Gjinokastra) | 4,125 | 159,695 | 39 | Gjinokastra (11) |
| Berati (Berati) | 3,666 | 169,431 | 46 | Berati (10) |
| Corcia (Korça) | 3,750 | 169,234 | 45 | Korça (23) |
| Kosov | 2,038 | 46,666 | 23 | Kukësi (0.2) |
| Dibra | 2,151 | 83,491 | 39 | Peshkopija (1) |
| Durazzo (Durrësi) | 1,550 | 90,243 | 58 | Durrësi (14) |
| Elbasan (Elbasan) | 3,549 | 110,447 | 31 | Elbasan (14) |
| Scutari (Shkodra) | 5,560 | 160,929 | 29 | Shkodra (30) |
| Tirana (Vlora) | 911 | 59,160 | 65 | Tirana (31) |
| Valona (Valona) | 1,448 | 56,607 | 39 | Vlora (9) |
| **Total** | **28,738** | **1,105,903** | **39** | |
4. CHRISTIANITY IN ALBANIA
The ancient Epirus and the southern part of Illyria, which form present-day Albania, had their own religion with a local mythology, traces of which can be seen in the continuation, transformation, or blending with the cult of Greek deities widely attested in the “Greek” coinage of the region: Apollo, Diana, Asclepius. Important deities include Hercules, whose club is depicted, Jupiter—perhaps introduced with Macedonian rule if not indigenous (Jupiter Dodonaeus)—and Demeter.The date of Christian penetration is not attested with certainty. It is not improbable, however, that it occurred early, given the proximity of the first Christian communities in Greece and the frequent contacts between the two regions. The first historical evidence of Albanian Christianity dates from the 4th century, when the Council of Serdica (343) mentions bishops from Dyrrachium (Durazzo) and Apollonia.
Ecclesiastically, while in the south the apostolic vicariate was granted by the Popes to the metropolitans of Thessalonica (i.e., Salonika) and later to those of Prima Justiniana (which succeeded Scupi), in the north a certain preeminence was held by the metropolitan of Salona (i.e., Spalato), which was also felt in Praevalitana. In this province, moreover, the Roman Church possessed landed property administered by a cleric who often acted alternately as the Pope’s delegate and as his inspector. To a large extent, it was due to the influence of these organs that, even during periods of schism and heresy and despite attempts at Constantinopolitan interference, not only the Latin element but also the two culturally Hellenized provinces of Epirus remained substantially faithful to Rome. Only at the time of the Acacian schism (late 5th – early 6th century), especially supported by the emperor Anastasius, a native of Durazzo (491–518), was there, after some resistance, a weakening in New Epirus and Dardania. Yet by the beginning of 519, the papal legates sent to the Dardanian emperor Justinus to resolve the dispute received, as they passed through Epirus, the obedience of all the bishops, with the zealous support of the metropolitan of Scodra.
The Slavic invasion (7th century) seemed to overwhelm everything. The south-western zone (Durazzo and Nicopolis), which remained immune, nevertheless suffered considerably from the iconoclastic persecution (731–826). Moreover, by the autocratic decision of Emperor Leo the Isaurian (731), the provinces of Illyricum were detached from the Western Patriarchate and assigned to Constantinople. This, if not for Praevalitana, certainly had its effect on Epirus, despite Rome’s protests. Meanwhile, at the eastern borders of the country, the Bulgars had appeared; having been baptized (ca. 864) and long oscillating between Rome and Constantinople, they eventually adopted the Byzantine rite in Slavonic under the guidance of disciples of SS. Cyril and Methodius and founded an autocephalous archbishopric, later a patriarchate, at Prespa and then at Acrida (i.e., Ohrid, Alb. Ohri), to which they attached most of the former suffragan territories of Durazzo and Nicopolis. The reconquest by Emperor Basil the Bulgar-Slayer brought central and southern Albania back under Byzantine rule (1019), but not all under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, for he deemed it expedient to maintain, indeed to revive in full autocephaly with the title of archbishopric, the nucleus of Acrida with its numerous suffragans. Meanwhile, in the north a barbaric state strongly pervaded by Latinity was consolidating and refining itself: Dioclea, roughly corresponding to ancient Praevalitana. As ancient episcopal sees revived, new ones were created in the major Latin cities (Scutari, Dulcigno, Drivasto, Suacia) and in other smaller ones (such as Pulati and Sarda) of Albanian speech. Initially placed under the metropolitan of the very Latin Ragusa, and at times under that of Spalato (successor to Salona), they later, after long contention, obtained their own metropolitan in Antivari (q.v.), where in 1199 an important provincial council was held that reformed numerous abuses.
The 13th century brought a decisive eastern ascendancy. After a brief Venetian rule on the coasts (1204–12), following the Latin conquest of Constantinople, and despite the establishment of a Latin archbishopric at Durazzo dependent on the Latin patriarchate of Constantinople, all of Epirus formed an independent despotate under the Angeli-Comneni dynasty (1212–59), which, for political reasons, leaned toward the Byzantine rite.
Albania – Byzantine church of Mesopotamo.
Albania – Byzantine church of Mesopotamo.
Albania – Byzantine church of Mesopotamo.
Albania – Byzantine church of Mesopotamo.
Albania – Byzantine church of Mesopotamo.
The Albanians, oscillating in religious matters between East and West, ended by adhering to the former. The clergy, moreover, of exclusively Greek culture, while cultivating strong autocephalous tendencies, preferred Constantinople (or Nicosia) to Rome. It was then
a novelty. Various appeals by “Orthodox” prelates of Albania to the political protection of the Pope had also led to a religious rapprochement, so that there first came a kind of union, and then, since this did not succeed well, to the creation of archiepiscopal sees for Latins in Ocrida and Scopia. A mission of Eastern rite worked for a long time in the Marra (1628–...?).
In the 18th century, the work of recovery continued. The armed autonomy of the mountain tribes, now assured, and the flourishing of large and wealthy Christian merchant communities in the cities seemed likely to guarantee its success. Instead, while the causes that would later lead to stagnation and defections were taking shape and developing, these defections continued, indeed intensified throughout that century due to the delayed effect of old and new causes. The clergy, however, was too scarce to counter the religious indifference brought by too many civil contacts with the Muslim environment, so that even trivial reasons sufficed to decide individuals, families, and villages to defect. The Turkish Empire increasingly opened wide spectacular civil and military careers for Albanians, provided they were Muslims. To the sporadic fanaticism of the Turkish governors was added the apostate tendencies of certain strong local families who had become hereditary feudal lords. It should not, however, be believed that this was immediately a simple and pure passage to Islamism; often it was merely the adoption of a Turkish personal name for use in dealings with the dominant environment; often a family would surround itself with perhaps only one member to obtain rights and exemptions. In vast northeastern and central areas, the phenomenon of crypto-Christianity arose, lasting even until our own day; even among those who embraced Islam, many preferred its milder and less alien sects, such as that of the Bektashi.
The 19th century is marked by a slackening of persecution, especially due to the official protection of Catholicism in Albania, which Austria assumed as heir to Venice and exercised even by granting subsidies to the clergy and Catholic works, and by the improved culture of the clergy and laity. Already from the 17th century there had been various attempts to establish seminaries on the spot; but it was only in 1856 that a national pontifical college was founded in Scutari, entrusted to the Jesuits, which from then on supplied all the secular clergy and even the episcopal sees. At the same time, the Franciscans began to open elementary schools, and in 1877 the Jesuits opened the first middle school in Scutari; in 1870 they had also opened a printing press. By the end of the century, while the Franciscans were revitalizing the parishes entrusted to them with excellent elements, even indigenous ones, the Jesuits began the “flying mission” for popular missions, especially in the mountains, which succeeded in spreading instruction and fervor for religious life everywhere. The “Orthodox” part did not progress at the same pace; now fully under the power of the patriarchate of Constantinople, which, moreover, cared nothing for it, it saw the disappearance of that learned clergy that in the 18th century had made the school and printing press of Moscopoli flourish. Having initially relied on the fraternal help of resurgent Greece, it finally had to detach itself with regret due to the Hellenism that, however, had eliminated II. Thus the South, while progressing civilly and culturally, remained uncultivated religiously.
In the 20th century, national independence (1912) had the effect of almost completely halting apostasies; however, during the reign of King Zog, the law on “religious communities” struck a severe blow to ancient ecclesiastical immunities, and Catholics were excluded from allocations of the cult fund and thus forced to rely on the subsidies that Italy continued to grant, as before Austria had done. Moreover, the suppression of private schools (1933) struck the Catholic community, which had flourishing institutes, and provoked dangerous propaganda of atheistic communism, which the government could not even curb by a limited restitution of the suppressed institutes. During the regime of the “union” with Italy, the Catholic part, without enjoying a privileged condition, had parity of rights with the other communities. Faced with a felt “Orthodox” movement of return to the religion of Skanderbeg, the problem of union was studied, but the establishment of small scattered missions seemed to disappoint the expectations of the “Orthodox,” who saw in it rather a fragmentation than the salvation of their own bloc as they had hoped.
At present, for the Catholic part there is in Albania an Apostolic Delegate (since 1921, but never accredited to the local government), an archdiocese in Scutari with the suffragan sees of Alessio, Pulati, and Sappa, an archdiocese without suffragans in Durazzo, and an abbacy *nullius* with a titular bishop of episcopal rank immediately dependent on the Holy See at St. Alexander of the Mirditi (Orosi). The ancient archdiocese of Antivari, first remaining with Montenegro and then with Yugoslavia, although composed almost exclusively of Albanian parishes, lost its suffragans, which passed to Scutari restored to its ancient rank (1867). Scopia, also remaining with Yugoslavia with its parishes largely Albanian, is now reduced to the rank of a diocese. The “Orthodox” community, after a long struggle for its autocephaly, which dates back to 1912 and was accompanied by patriarchal excommunications, finally obtained recognition with a patriarchal *tomo* in 1937; it has Albanian as a liturgical language and, besides the metropolitanate of Durazzo-Tirana, includes the eparchies of Corizza (Korça), Berati, and Argirocastro. Albanian Catholicism is divided into two parts by an imaginary line passing south of Tirana; to the north it is under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, while to the south it forms an eparchy under the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Church. The Muslim community, at least since the abolition of the caliphate, forms an autonomous national group, with a chief mufti and various muftis in provincial capitals, a general *medrese* (seminary) in Tirana, and various students also in the Islamic universities of al-Azhar in Cairo and of Lahore in India.
The period of Albanian state autonomy deprived the Catholic community of the somewhat privileged position it had enjoyed under the Turkish domination, in a regime of concessions and under Austrian protection, and removed various canonical privileges from the ecclesiastical hierarchy (ecclesiastical forum, freedom of teaching, etc.); yet, for the merits acquired in the long struggle for national liberation and for its higher cultural level, the Catholic part enjoyed an absolutely exceptional prestige in comparison with the other numerically predominant religions. On the other hand, the progressive spread of culture had eliminated in the Catholic population, and especially in the ruling classes, much of the ancient prejudices regarding Catholicism and the Papacy, so that a notable progress of the Catholic cause could reasonably have been hoped for in the near future. Instead, the regime established at the beginning of 1945 under the name of the Albanian Republic, with an increasingly Marxist-Bolshevik and tyrannical orientation, led to a veritable persecution of the religious idea, from which every religious community suffered materially, and in particular the Catholic community, on account of the very high percentage of victims especially among the clergy and the complete destruction of all its organizations, including the seminaries.
5. CULTURAL HISTORY
The Albanian nation, linguistically and culturally heir to the Thraco-Illyrian stock, did not display any evident signs of autonomous cultural life until the 16th century, contenting itself with fitting into the culture of the empires that dominated the region. From that time, however, the need to keep religious culture alive among a people isolated from the rest of European culture by the Turkish conquest drove the Latin Catholic clergy to publish translations of liturgical texts and catechisms in the Albanian language (G. Buzuku, Missal, 1555; Pietro Budi, b. 1566, d. 1623, various works; the latter also showed a certain literary bent, which manifested itself in numerous short sacred lyrics of some merit). Francesco Bardhi (Blanchus) also published an early Latin-Epiriotic dictionary (1635). Finally, in 1685, a major apologetic work of some eloquence and in good literary form appeared: the Cuneus by Pietro Bogdani. At the same time, the Italo-Albanians also developed a parallel religious-literary activity in Italy. The Orthodox clergy, absorbed as it was in the great tree of Byzantine culture, produced little beyond some lexicographical works and a translation of the Gospel by Gregorio Agricosta (1824); it did not share the tendency that had characterized the evangelizing work of the ancient Eastern Church, namely, to give popular form and language to liturgy and preaching. Indeed, when it later attempted such a thing at the dawn of the 20th century, it incurred severe measures from the Constantinopolitan patriarchate. Thus, it can be said that Albanian literature was born in the shadow of the Catholic Church. The scarcity and limited moral and cultural value of some popular erotic works by Muslim poets carry little weight, especially since they were never published.The 19th century saw, on the one hand, the emergence of a decisive literary tendency within the Catholic clergy, fostered by the new ecclesiastical institutions established in the country, and, on the other, a cultural evolution of national sentiment, especially after 1878. At that time, a poet of Turkish culture but well versed in the national spirit and language, Naim Frashëri (1846–1900), gained fame and remained the national poet until the Franciscan G. Fishta (q.v.) eclipsed all others. Other names should not be overlooked, such as the priest Andrea Mjedja (1866–1937), the most refined representative of classical lyric poetry, and Faik Konitsa (1875–1943), a highly cultivated prose writer. Today, it can be said that, despite a scarcity of works of high artistic value, Albanian literature has enabled its language to express itself in every literary genre and in every philosophical and scientific form. The Catholic clergy has continued its great tradition in this regard. It has also continued in the collection of national treasures, such as the rich and distinctive folklore, phraseology, and above all, popular poetry, which is especially noteworthy for its epic grandeur and the richness of its sentiment and sense of nature. Another field of the highest importance for national culture, almost exclusively cultivated by the Catholic clergy, is that of the most original legal customs (Kanun), which, though preserved for centuries only orally, display a vigorous national legal sense in their organic structure and logic. In this field, Fr. Stefano Gjeçov, O.M. (1874–1929), distinguished himself, along with the Italian monsignor Ernesto Cozzi (d. 1925), and later many living figures. Original philosophical and scientific production, however, has remained scarce, limited thus far to periodical publications, among which the following stand out: *Hylli i Dritës* of the Franciscans, *Leka* of the Jesuits, and *Albania* by F. Konitsa.
6. THE GREEK-ALBANIAN RITE
So called because in Albania the dissidents used Greek liturgical books until the granting of autocephaly (12 April 1937). From that time onward, the Albanian liturgical language was increasingly introduced; but even before then, it was already in use among Albanians in Romania and America. The following books are known:1) *Service for Holy Week* (1908); 2) *Book of Sacred Services*: a small *Aghiasmatarion*, containing only the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1909); 3) *Book of the Great Feasts* (1911); 4) *Little Triodion* (1913); 5) *Little Pentecostarion* (1914); 6) *Book of Prayers*: chants taken from the *Octoechos* and the *Paraclis* (1914). These books were translated from Greek by Fan Noli and published in Boston. In addition: 7) *Book of Sacred Services* (reprint, Corista 1930); 8) *Evangeliarium* (Tirana 1930); 9) *Apostolos*, the Epistolary (Tirana 1931).
ALBANO, DIOCESE OF. — In Lazio, in the province of Rome, it is one of the six suburbicarian sees occupied by a cardinal of the episcopal order. It extends from the Castelli Romani to the sea, covering an area of 661 sq. km with a population of 85,000, divided into 19 parishes, served by 32 secular priests,
