Korçë is the eighth most populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Korçë County and Korçë Municipality. The total population is 75,994, in a total area of 806 km2 (311 sq mi). It stands on a plateau some 850 m (2,789 ft) above sea level, surrounded by the Morava Mountains.
Protestantism is the third largest religious grouping in Bulgaria after Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam. In the census of 2011, a total of 64,476 people declared themselves to be Protestants of different denominations, up from 42,308 in the previous census in 2001 and from 21,878 in 1992. The marked rise in the number of Protestants in the last two decades is partly due to a boom in conversions among the Bulgarian Roma. In 2001, the two largest ethnic group among the Bulgarian Protestants were the Bulgarians and the Romani with some 25,000 members each.
Christianity in Albania was established throughout the country in 325 AD. From 1100 AD, the Roman Empire carried out Church missions in the area. In relation to the increasing influence of Venice, the Franciscans started to settle down in the area in the 13th century. From the 15th century to the 19th century, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Christianity was replaced by Islam as the majority religion in Albania during the Ottoman Empire.
The most common religion in Albania is Islam, with the second-most-common religion being Christianity. There are also a number of irreligious Albanians. There are no official statistics regarding the number of practicing religious people per each religious group.
The World Religion Database noted that in 2020, 47% of the population of Eritrea were Christian; almost 4% are Protestant.
The Congress of Manastir was an academic conference held in the city of Manastir from November 14 to 22, 1908, with the goal of standardizing the Albanian alphabet. November 22 is now a commemorative day in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, as well as among the Albanian diaspora, known as Alphabet Day. Prior to the Congress, the Albanian language was represented by a combination of six or more distinct alphabets, plus a number of sub-variants.
Christianity is the largest religion in Venezuela, with Catholicism having the most adherents.
Protestantism has had a small impact on Spanish life. In the first half of the 16th century, Reformist ideas failed to gained track in Castile and Aragon. In the second half of the century, the Hispanic Monarchy and the Catholic Church managed to clear the territory from any remaining Protestant hotspot, most notably after the autos-da-fé in Valladolid (1559) and Seville (1560), from then on. 16th-century Inquisition blurred differences between erasmism, iluminismo and protestantism as if they belonged to a common branch.
Vangjel Meksi (1770–1823) was an Albanian physician, writer, and translator. One-time personal physician to Ali Pasha, the 19th-century Albanian ruler of the Pashalik of Yanina, Meksi produced the first translation of the New Testament into Albanian with the help and sponsorship of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS). Meksi did not live to see his work's publication however, which was supervised by Gregory IV of Athens. As a member of Filiki Etaireia, a secret society whose purpose was to establish an independent Greek state, Meksi joined the Greeks in the Siege of Tripolitsa during their war of independence against the Ottoman Empire and died shortly afterwards.
Christianity in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating to the Roman Empire. The entire Balkan region had been Christianized by the Roman, Byzantine, First Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Kingdom, Second Bulgarian Empire, and Serbian Empire till 13th century. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and a high level of Islamization occurred. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. Today, 90% of Kosovo's population are from Muslim family backgrounds, most of whom are ethnic Albanians, but also including Slavic speakers and Turks.
Brussels Protestant Church is a Brussels-based Protestant Christian congregation formally constituted in 1804 and whose roots go back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Parashqevi Qiriazi, also known as Paraskevi D. Kyrias was an Albanian teacher of the Kyrias family who dedicated her life to the Albanian alphabet and to the instruction of written Albanian language. She was a woman participant at the Congress of Manastir, which decided the form of the Albanian alphabet, and the founder of the Yll' i Mengjesit, a women's association. Parashqevi was also a participant in the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 as a member of the Albanian-American community. She was the sister of Sevasti Qiriazi, who was the director of the first Albanian School for girls in Korça, opened in 1891.
Gjerasim Qiriazi was an Albanian Protestant preacher, Bible translator and distributor, educator, and activist of the Albanian National Awakening. In the early 1890s he founded the Albanian Evangelical Protestant community and the first Albanian school for girls in Korçë, Albania, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
Gjergj Qiriazi (1868–1912) was an Albanian patriot, author, educator, translator, Protestant Bible distributor, organizer of the First Congress of Monastir (1908), and activist of the Albanian National Awakening.
Kristo Sulidhi, full name Kristo Panajot Sulidhi, also known as Kristo Shuli, (1858-1938), was an Albanian photographer and writer of the 19th and early 20th century. He was born in the village of Marjan of the region of Opar. He emigrated to Greece where he wrote in Anastas Kullurioti's weekly The Voice of Albania,. One of his most important poems was a ballad of 150 verses entitled The Albanians who fight in Gucia. He returned to Albania and worked in Korçë as a photographer. One of his most important photos is the one that documented the first Albanian school, opened in 1887.
The Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church (KPEC) is a Protestant church network based in Pristina, Kosovo. It is one of the four protected major religions in the Kosovo Law of Religious Freedoms. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Kosovar Albanians follow this church, 6,000 in Pristina alone. There are 42 churches in all of Kosovo.
Sevasti Qiriazi-Dako was an Albanian patriot, educator, Protestant missionary, author, pioneer of Albanian female education, and activist of the Albanian National Awakening.
Qiriazi family were a prominent Albanian family from Manastir. They were educators, translators, publishers, and public figures of the Albanian National Awakening period. They are remembered for their activities in support of the consolidation of Albanian national awareness. They are also known, especially Gjerasim and Gjergj, for their role as early founders of the Albanian Evangelical Movement.
Kosovo does not have an official religion. Like the rest of the country, the majority of Pristina's population consider themselves to be Muslim. However, religious practices may tend to be liberal. Many do fast for Ramadan and praying is widely practiced.
Naum Dhimitër Naçi (1871–1927), also known as Nuçi Naçi, was an Albanian teacher and patriot. He was the brother of Leonidha Naçi. With his intellectual and political activities, he played an important role during the late period of the Albanian National Awakening that sought independence from the Ottoman Empire and the creation of an Albanian national state. He wrote some books that discussed contemporary issues of education among Albanian communities in the Ottoman Empire, headed a Yanina-based patriotic newspaper named Zgjimi i Shqiperise, and participated in several nationalist groups. His 1901 Korça dhe fshatrat perreth saje was published in Sofia, where other major works in the development of Albanian nationalism and Albanian literature were concurrently published, including Naim Frasheri's Historia e Shqiperise and Deshira e vertete e Shqiptareve, Gjerasim Qiriazi's Hristomathi, and Sami Frasheri's Besa and Tosk primer. Naçi served for some time as the director and teacher of Mësonjëtorja, the first secular school in the Albanian language within Ottoman Albania that was opened in Korçë. At first he managed to get support from the local Ottoman governor general based in Monastir. However, in 1902 Naçi was arrested and incarcerated in Salonica by Mehmed Ali Pasha Delvina, the new Ottoman governor of Korçë.
