The Orthodox Church of Albania

A woman prays at St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois. (photo: Hryhoriy Prystay)

Christianity arrived in Albania before the 4th century from two directions. The Ghegs in the north of the country became Latin Christians, while the Byzantine tradition was predominant among the Tosk people in the south. Following the Turkish conquest in the 15th century, the majority of Albanians became Moslem. Under Ottoman rule, the remaining Orthodox population of Albania was integrated into the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and all Orthodox religious services, instruction and cultural activities were conducted in Greek.

The first Orthodox community to use Albanian in the liturgy was in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in 1908 among a group of Albanian immigrants led by Fr Fan Noli (1882-1965). Noli had prepared his own translation of the liturgy into Albanian, and used it also during a tour several major cities of Europe in 1911. Soon after Albanian independence in 1912, Fan Noli traveled to Albania where he would be ordained a bishop and become the head of the church, whose independence he strongly supported. He also became an influential political figure, and would even serve briefly as prime minister for five months in 1924, until his government was overthrown and he went into permanent exile.

In 1922 a government-sponsored congress in Berat in 1922 had proclaimed the autocephaly of the Albanian Orthodox Church, and adopted a church constitution that was later sanctioned by the government. But it was only in 1929 that King Zog asked two bishops in the country to ordain three more bishops, thus creating a five-member Holy Synod which again declared autocephaly. Constantinople reacted by deposing the Albanian bishops, and a de facto schism was created. The impasse was broken only in 1936 when the Albanian government proposed naming Metropolitan Kristofor Kissi, who had strong ties to Constantinople, as the new primate. In response, the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized the autocephalous status of the Albanian Orthodox Church and regularized the situation with a patriarchal Tomos on April 12, 1937.

During the interwar period, aside from the Archbishopric of Tirana, there were Orthodox dioceses in Berat, Argyrokastro (Gjirokaster), and Korytsa (Korce). Greek was still widely used in the liturgy, but a process of preparing new translations of the texts into Albanian began in 1930. Parishes were allowed to choose the language they preferred. An Orthodox seminary was founded at Korytsa in 1937.

The communist revolution of 1945 marked the beginning of savage persecution of all religious groups in Albania. By this time the population was approximately 22% Orthodox and 10% Catholic. A number of influential Orthodox clergy were executed, and in 1949 Archbishop Kristofor Kissi of Tirana was deposed. By 1951 all the Orthodox bishops had been replaced by men acceptable to the regime.

The Albanian government eventually took much stronger measures against religion than other governments in Eastern Europe. In 1967 the communist regime announced that all religious edifices in Albania, including 2,169 churches, mosques, monasteries and other institutions, were being closed and that all religious practices were illegal. In the same year, Archbishop Damianos of Tirana was sent to prison where he died in 1973.

The faithful attend a service at St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois. (photo: Hryhoriy Prystay)

When the communist government in Albania began to disintegrate in 1990, the long period of religious persecution came to an end. Since no Albanian Orthodox bishops had survived, in January 1991 the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which had granted autocephalous status to the Albanian Church, appointed Metropolitan Anastasios of Androusis, a Professor at the University of Athens, as Patriarchal Exarch in Albania. It was his task to oversee the process of the canonical reconstruction of the autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church. On June 24, 1992, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected Anastasios as Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania and named three other bishops (also Greek nationals) for the remaining Orthodox dioceses in the country. Although the government did not recognize the appointment of the other three bishops, Anastasios was enthroned the following August. In July 1996 the Ecumenical Patriarchate proceeded to the ordination of the three other bishops it had named for Albania. But the government refused to allow them to enter the country and insisted that ethnic Albanians be appointed to those positions.

The position of Archbishop Anastasios as head of the Albanian Orthodox Church was threatened in late 1994. In October President Berisha stated that the Archbishop had only been appointed temporarily, and the government proposed a new draft constitution which required that the heads of large religious communities be Albanian citizens who were born in the country and who had resided there permanently for at least 20 years. But when the referendum on the new constitution was held on November 6th, it was defeated by 60% of the vote. By December relations between the Orthodox Church and the state had improved, but the position of the Archbishop still seemed uncertain. Tension between the Greek and Abanian governments over the status of the Greek minority in the country complicated the position of the Archbishop, who is an ethnic Greek. The 1989 census indicated that there are just under 60,000 Greeks in Albania, but the great majority of the Orthodox in the country are ethnic Albanians.

The impasse over the appointment of new Albanian Orthodox bishops was resolved in 1998. With the mutual consent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Orthodox Church of Albania and the Albanian government, two of the previously ordained bishops resigned their offices, and one of them (Metropolitan Ignatios of Berat) was enthroned on July 18th. On the same day, Archbishop Anastasios and Metropolitan Ignatios met in extraordinary session with two representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and elected two new ethnic Albanian bishops: Archimandrite John Pelushi (43 years old) was elected Metropolitan of Korça, and Fr. Kosma Qirjo (77 years old) was elected Bishop of Apollonia. Thus a full Holy Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church was formed. In 2000, Bishop Kosma died, leaving only three bishops in the country. On November 11, 2006, the Holy Synod elected three archimandrites to the episcopate. They were consecrated before the end of the year, raising the number of Albanian Orthodox bishops to six.

Since the church was reestablished in 1991, 90 new churches have been built, five monasteries and 80 churches/monuments have been renovated and restored, and more than 140 churches have been repaired, as compared to the original 324 churches confiscated by the communist regime. This large-scale rebuilding program is still underway.

In March 1992 the Resurrection of Christ Theological Academy was opened in an abandoned hotel in Durrës, where about 60 young men began to study for the priesthood. The seminary moved into newly constructed quarters at St. Vlash Monastery in Durrës in late 1996. In September 1998, Holy Cross Ecclesiastical High School opened in Gjirokastër, where housing is available for 90 students. When the communist government fell there were only 22 surviving Orthodox priests in the country; only three of them were still alive in 2003. By 2005, 193 students had graduated from the seminary. One hundred twenty-five of them were serving as priests, but there was still a severe shortage of clergy.

A monthly official church periodical, Ngjallia (“Resurrection”), began publication in October 1992, and in 1997 an Orthodox radio station with the same name began broadcasting. Several other publications have also appeared, including a monthly children’s magazine, a student bulletin, and an English-language news bulletin.

In North America there are two separate Albanian Orthodox jurisdictions. The Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America, which makes up a distinct ethnic diocese within the Orthodox Church in America and has 13 parishes, is administered by Bishop Nikon of Boston. The diocesan chancery is at 523 E. Broadway, South Boston, Massachusetts 02127-4415. The Albanian Orthodox Diocese in America, which has parishes in Chicago and South Boston, is under the spiritual care of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The Orthodox Church in America
The Patriarchate of Constantinople (The Ecumenical Patriarchate)

Last Modified: 28 June 2007