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Albania of the twenties.’ The religion of Christ arrived in these lands very early on and was disseminated without any difficulty amidst the local inhabitants, about two thousand years ago, while the vast schism of Christianity of 1504, remained, in the final account, “a conflict of the priesthood” and was not transmitted down to the people, who faithfully pursued the path of their spiritual shepherds without giving all of that business much thought. Today, only 10 out of every 100 Albanians remain Catholics, and even they are dispersed over the highlands of northern Albania, in locations, where not a single form of central government saw any gain in going about the enormous job of converting this community to any other religion.
Over the last two Centuries, when the process of installing the religion of Islam was completed in the country, the two major champions of the Albanian Catholics were,first of all, the Austrian Empire and later on, Italy. At given moments, both of these states nurtured expansionist, but not assimilating ambitions, hence, in this manner, encouraging the preservation of local cultures and, later on, instigating Albanian nationalism. To tell the truth, Albanian civilization still owes the Catholic clergy a major debt, for everything this clergy did for the spirit of the Albanian nation and for the countless, untold sufferings this clergy was subjected to during the years of communism.
The larger photograph shows Father Gjergj Fishta, perhaps the most remarkable figure of the Albanian Francescans. He is wearing the dark brown cloak of the Order of the Francescans, with the white, tassled cord at the waist. On the wall behind him hangs a “Scenderbeg Award” given to Father Fishta by Giovanni Kastrioti, a descendent of the early Kastriots and Pretender to the Throne of Albania in 1913.
The other photo deserves the caption, “look at the photo as the original no longer exists.” This is the Vau i Dejes Church, one of the rare monuments that existed in northern Albania. It belongs to the XII Century and is of the Roman-Gothic style with Lombard influences, constructed in engraved stone, which was the reason why it survived for a full century. It survived the times of babarity but not the babarity of the times. Although proclaimed “a monument of Culture”, this church was blown up, from its very foundations in 1974, in a most exaggerated moment of anti-religion frenzy. The only images of this church today can still be seen printed on the 1000 lek note and of course in the pages of the “Book of our Creator”, before wom, one day we are going to have to render account for our acts.
