Martyrs of Albania | |
---|---|
Martyrs | |
Born | 1874–1935 |
Died | 1945–1974 Albania |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Beatified | 5 November 2016, Shkodër Cathedral, Shkodër, Albania by Cardinal Angelo Amato |
Feast | 5 November |
The Martyrs of Albania were a collective group of 38 individuals killed during the Communist regime in Albania from 1945 until 1974 (all but five between 1945 and 1950). All were born at various times between 1874 and 1935; the group included Albanians and Italians as well as one German. [1] Each of these individuals, apart from four, were part of the religious life as either priests or religious and served as either missionaries or educators with a great deal spending their educational formation in Italian and Austrian cities.
The beatification cause opened in 2002 and the group were beatified on 5 November 2016.
The 38 individuals were all murdered during the Communist regime between the end of World War II in 1945 until 1974 (mostly between 1945 and 1950. They included 2 bishops as well as 21 diocesan priests and 7 from the Order of Friars Minor. There were also 3 Jesuits and 1 seminarian killed in addition to 4 of the general faithful. [1]
There was one single woman killed – she was an aspirant (though no member) to the religious life of the Franciscan Sisters of the Stigmata.
Giovanni Fausti was born in Brescia as the first of twelve children to Antonio Fausti and Maria Sigolini. [2] At the age of ten he began his ecclesiastical studies and was a classmate of Giovanni Battista Montini – the future Pope Paul VI. He studied at the Pontifical Lombard College in Rome where he was later ordained as a priest on 9 July 1922; he entered the Society of Jesus on 30 October 1924. He was drafted into the armed forces in 1917 and in 1920 attended a course at Modena for this before being sent to service in Rome; he was discharged as a lieutenant in 1920 and resumed his studies. He graduated in theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University. [2] In 1923 he served as a philosophical studies educator in Brescia. From 1929 to 1932 he was a professor in Albania and wrote on ecumenism from 1931 to 1933 in the magazine "La Civilta Cattolica".
In Albania he coordinated careful dialogue with the Islamic religion and was later recalled to Mantua in 1932 where he contracted tuberculosis. Fausti underwent special health treatments in Switzerland from August 1933 to 1936 as well as in northern Italian cities before making his profession on 2 February 1936. He returned to Albania to continue his work in 1942 and in Tirana in World War II suffered a broken collarbone due to a Nazi bullet that struck him. Fausti was arrested on 31 December 1945 and was held in confinement for two months where he was tortured; he was sentenced on 22 February 1946. Fausti was shot dead at 6:00am on 4 March 1946.
Daniel Dajani was born in late 1906. In 1918 he started his studies for the priesthood and began his novitiate period with the Society of Jesus at Gorizia on 8 July 1926. [3] He underwent his philosophical studied in Chieri from 1931 to 1933 and taught from 1934 to 1935 before returning for theological studies in Chieri from 1937 to 1939 just prior to the start of World War II. He returned to teaching in 1940 and on 2 February 1942 made his solemn profession.
He was arrested on 31 December 1945 – sent to solitary confinement for two months and tortured – and later sentenced to death on 22 February 1946; he was shot dead at 6:00am on 4 March 1946. [3]
Lek Sirdani was born on 1 March 1891; his brother Marin became a member of the Order of Friars Minor. His parents died sometime during his childhood. [4] An aunt first educated him and an Albanian Muslim then took charge over his education. Sirdani was ordained in 1916 in Austria after having studied there and he soon returned to Albania.
Sirdani delivered a homily on 26 July 1948 alluding to Communist activities in Albania and was arrested on 27 July before being tortured on 29 July and thrown into a large room that was the cesspool of all inmate bathrooms; he died of suffocation there. [4]
Maria Tuci was born in 1928 to Nikoll Mark Tuci and Dila Fusha and attended school that the Franciscan Sisters of the Stigmata managed; she also asked to become part of their order but this never happened. [5] She – in 1946 – began work with her friend Davida Markagjoni as a teacher and she often paid for supplies herself for the benefit of the children under her ward. She often walked six or seven kilometers to get to Mass.
Tucci was arrested on 10 August 1949 and was tortured to the point where she was admitted into the civil hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries just two months later. Her last words were: "I thank God that I die free". [5] Her torture had intensified after she refused to answer her captors' questions.
Luigj Prendushi was born in 1896 and was ordained as a priest in 1921 in Italy; he had departed for that place at age twelve. [6] He returned to Albania in 1921 after his ordination and the ship that carried him sank; he was known at the time for being calm in the face of this trouble. Prendushi was arrested on 5 December 1946 and shot dead in 1947. [6]
Gjon Pantalla was born on 2 June 1887 in Kosovo and entered the Jesuits as a professed religious rather than as a priest as his superiors would have liked him to have become. [7] He spent time in Italy for his education and did his novitiate in Soresina. Pantalla was arrested and tried to escape his captors when he jumped out of a window – he broke his legs and was recaptured and later died of his injuries on 31 October 1947.
Kolë Shllaku – Gjon in religious – was born in 1907. He became part of the Franciscans and was later ordained as a priest in 1931 in Belgium. [8] He made his solemn profession as a Franciscan at the age of fifteen and returned to Albania. He was arrested and sentenced to death by firing squad on 22 February 1946; he was shot to death at 6:00am on 4 March 1946. [8]
Gjon Koda – Serafin in religious – was born on 25 April 1893 in Serbia and became a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor. [9] He was ordained in 1925 and celebrated his first Mass on 30 July 1925. Koda was arrested by the Communist regime and tortured for two weeks. [9]
Lazër Shantoja was born on 2 September 1892. [10] An uncle of his led his life to the extent that Shantoja wanted to become a priest. He spent time in Switzerland in exile during the government of Zog I of Albania and returned after a good period of fifteen years. The Jesuits oversaw his education and he continued his studies in Innsbruck in Austria where he learned German; he was ordained as a priest in 1920 and could play the piano. [10]
The authorities broke his arms and legs during his torture and he had to drag himself on his elbows and knees in order to move since the damage was too great; he was killed in 1945 with a gunshot to the neck.
Josif Mihali was born on 23 September 1912 as part of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church and he was dispatched to Grottaferrata and Rome. [11] He studied for the priesthood in Rome and celebrated the Divine Liturgy – or first Mass – on 1 December 1935 at the church of Saint Athanasius in Rome. Mihali returned to Albania in 1936.
Mihali was arrested in 1945 and sentenced to a decade of hard labor in the marshes. On 26 October 1948 – while working – he collapsed from tiredness and the guards forced other workers to bury him alive; he died of suffocation. [11]
Dedë Nikacj – Ciprian in religious – was born in 1900 and became part of the Order of Friars Minor. Nikacj was orphaned by age five and educated by the Franciscans; he was sent to study theology in Austria before being ordained as a priest in Rome in 1924. He was arrested on the charge of concealing a weapons cache behind a church altar and was tortured until being shot to death on 11 March 1948. [12]
Pal Prennushi – Mati in religious – was born on 2 October 1881 and received his education from the Franciscans; he served as their provincial father – since becoming one – from 1943 until 1946. [13] He studied in Austria where he was later ordained as a priest in 1904 before the Serbs arrested him in 1911 for political activism – an Albanian Franciscan secured his release even though he had been sentenced to death. Communist authorities arrested him in September 1946 and tortured him for six months.
He was shot to death on 11 March 1948. [13]
The individuals are:
The beatification cause started with the transfer of competent forum to one Albanian diocese on 7 June 2002 before the formal introduction under Pope John Paul II in which the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat" and titled them all as Servants of God; the diocesan process opened on 10 November 2002 and Cardinal Claudio Hummes closed it on 8 December 2010. The C.C.S validated the process on 9 March 2012 before receiving two volumes that was the Positio in 2015 from the postulation.
Theologians approved the cause on 17 December 2015 as did the C.C.S. on 19 April 2016. Pope Francis confirmed the beatification on 26 April 2016 and Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the beatification on 5 November 2016 in Albania on the pope's behalf. 10 000 people attended as did five cardinals and the Archbishop of Potenza. The cardinal-designate Ernest Simoni was also present. [15]
The current postulator for this cause is Giovangiuseppe Califano.
Giovanni Battista Righi was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor. He was known for ascetic life and for his preaching and healing abilities.
Innocenzo da Berzo, born Giovanni Scalvinoni, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor. Scalvinoni assumed his new religious name upon his profession as a Capuchin friar.
Szymon of Lipnica was a Polish catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor. He became a sought after and noted preacher and took as his preaching inspiration Saint Bernardine of Siena and also was a strong proponent of popular devotions that he worked to spread.
Francis Anthony Fasani was an Italian friar of the Order of Conventual Friars Minor who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
Bernard of Offida - born Domenico Peroni - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin from the Marche area. Peroni lived for the most part in servitude to his fellow friars in various capacities and he was noted for his strong Eucharistic dedication and for his holiness.
Zef Pllumi was an Albanian Franciscan priest and memoirist. After 26 years in communist prisons he wrote the non-fiction works Live To Tell, A True Story of Religious Persecution in Albania, also known as the Albanian gulag archipelago, The Great Franciscans, The Book of Memories (1944–1951).
Vinçenc Prennushi was an Albanian Roman Catholic professed member from the Order of Friars Minor and he served as the Archbishop of Durrës from 1940 until his death. Prennushi became a noted poet and writer and published several works on national and international matters.
Baldassare Ravaschieri, OFM was an Italian Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor. Ravaschieri served as a noted preacher and confessor and befriended as contemporaries Bernardine of Feltre and architect Giovanni Antonio Amadeo.
Mariano da Roccacasale - born Domenico di Nicolantonio - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. He was of peasant stock and entered the order in his twenties as a professed religious rather than as an ordained priest. He was an influence in the decision of Giuseppe Oddi joining the Franciscans after their 1863 encounter. He became titled as a Servant of God under Pope Leo XIII on 12 December 1895 with the commencement of the canonization cause. He received the title Venerable in 1923 under Pope Pius XI; Roccacasale was beatified - alongside Oddi - when Pope John Paul II presided over the late Franciscans' beatification on 3 October 1999.
Blessed Marco da Montegallo was an Italian Roman Catholic priest from the Order of Friars Minor. He was born to a nobleman and served as a doctor in Ascoli Piceno before he was pressured into marriage in 1451 - the couple annulled their marriage after both entered the religious life. Father Marco is best known for establishing pawnshops for the poor across various Italian cities and for being a preacher of love.
Andrea Caccioli was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor. He became the first priest to enter the Franciscans and served as one of the disciples of Francis of Assisi himself - the priest was at his deathbed and attended his canonization. The friar preached across Italian cities such as Rome and Padua as well as in France and he became noted for miracles performed during his lifetime.
Juan de Prado, OFM was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor. He served as part of the missions in Muslim Morocco at the request of Pope Urban VIII and brought much solace to the small Christian population there before the ruler had him murdered.
Melchor Chyliński - in religious Rafał - was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. He first served as a soldier but decided to instead become a priest and so entered the Franciscans and made his profession prior to ordination. He also became known for his simplistic preaching and for his generous outreach to the poor through the distribution of clothing and food.
Honorat Koźmiński, born Florentyn Wacław Jan Stefan Koźmiński, was a Polish priest and professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who went on to establish sixteen religious congregations. He was a teacher before reinvigorating clandestine religious orders that the Russian Empire had suppressed during their occupation of Poland. He collaborated with a number of individuals in this venture and he publicised the Third Order of Saint Francis to people.
Nicolò Cortese - in religious Placido - was an Italian Catholic priest and professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. He served as both a parish priest and as the director for the "Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio" magazine in Padua before and during World War II. It was in that conflict that he set up an elaborate network designed to protect Jewish people as well as British prisoners of war and Yugoslavs. But the Nazis soon discovered his plans and organized his arrest in October 1944 before killing him some weeks later after brutal tortures in their interrogations.
Qerim Sadiku was a Catholic Albanian blessed who had converted from Islam. He was executed by a firing squad in Shkodër along with clerics Danjel Dajani, Giovanni Fausti, Gjon Shllaku, Mark Çuni and Gjelosh Lulashi. He was accepted as a martyr by the Catholic Church in 2016, part of the Martyrs of Albania.
Lazër Shantoja was an Albanian blessed, publicist, poet, satirist, and translator into Albanian from Goethe, Schiller and Leopardi, as well as his country's first Esperantist. He was one of the first Catholic priests, arrested by the communist government, and the first Albanian priest that was shot by a firing squad. He was accepted by the Catholic Church as a martyr in 2016, part of the Martyrs of Albania.
Johannes Laurentius Weiss and his two companions Michele Pio Fasoli and Antonio Francesco Marzorati were German and Italian priests of the Order of Friars Minor. All of them were missionaries. In 1704 they set off from Rome for Cairo to begin their travel through the Nile River to reach Ethiopia. But the team experienced significant pitfalls: conflicts in Ethiopia slowed them down and forced their return to Cairo though the team succeeded in their second attempt to reach their destination. Finally, anti-Catholicism was being fomented there under Miaphysite Orthodox Emperor of Ethiopia Dawit III, who decreed the missionaries, who accepted the Council of Chalcedon, to be nothing more than heretics, which resulted in the three friars being stoned.
Çiprian Nika, OFM was an Albanian Catholic priest, Franciscan, teacher, and publicist.
Thomas Saleh, born Jirays H̱anā S̱āleẖ, religious name Thūmā from B'abdāt, was a Lebanese Maronite priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Saleh joined the Franciscans in Istanbul and carried out his novitiate period there before he made his profession in mid-1900 and was ordained to the priesthood in late 1904. He tended to the missions and worked with his peer Leonard Melki; he dedicated himself to the mission school and was a noted preacher. He was transferred in 1910 but expelled in late 1914 once World War I and the Assyrian Genocide[commenced. Saleh was arrested in 1916 after the police planted evidence in his convent to frame him to make an arrest. He was mistreated in prison before he died from exhaustion from the torture in addition to the disease that ailed him in his imprisonment. He refused to capitulate to his captors to convert to Islam and refused to abandon his faith.