SCUTARI (SHKODRA, SHKÖDER), ARCHDIOCESE of. — Situated in the northwestern part of Albania, of very ancient origin.
The first bishop of S. whose name is recorded is a certain Bassus (387). At first S. formed part of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Thessalonica; in 412 it is mentioned as the metropolitan see of the province of “Praevalitana”; in 877, after the destruction of the city, it came under the new metropolitan see of Dioclea; in 1062 it is mentioned as a suffragan of Antivari.
From the seventh century until the middle of the twelfth century, no bishops of S. are known. The most distinguished bishop of S. is considered to have been Domenico Andrijasević, O.F.M. (d. in Rome in 1639), a celebrated philosopher and theologian, and a friend of Gregory XV and Urban VIII.
On 15 March 1867 S. was restored as an archdiocese, united “aeque principaliter” with Antivari. On 8 September 1886 it was detached from Antivari, and on 22 April 1887 it was constituted a metropolitan see with the suffragan dioceses of Alessio, Pulati, and Sappa. The provincial Council of S. in 1871 renewed the decrees of the First Albanian National Council of 1703 (Mansi, XXXV, 1375–1436; XLII, 345–454). A third provincial Council was held in 1895. The Pontifical Albanian Seminary at S., founded in 1837 as a diocesan seminary, from 1843 regional for Albania, Macedonia, and Serbia, and from 1862 a Pontifical Seminary, was under the direction of the Jesuits. S. is also the see of a Greek Orthodox bishop.
Because of the persecution in Albania, it is impossible to provide precise data on the situation of the archdiocese. The episcopal see is vacant, the seminary has been dissolved, and 12 priests have been killed. The regent of the apostolic delegation, Msgr. Francesco Gijn, bishop of Alessio, was shot. The last official statistics date from 1940 and give the archdiocese 25,540 Catholics out of a population of 66,890 souls (38%). There were 78 priests, more than half of them Franciscans and Jesuits, 6 churches, and 59 chapels.