The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania (), commonly known as the Albanian Orthodox Church or the Orthodox Church of Albania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with the other Eastern Orthodox churches. It declared its autocephaly in 1922 through its Congress of 1922, and gained recognition from the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1937.
The church suffered during the Second World War, and in the communist period that followed, especially after 1967 when Albania was declared an atheist state, and no public or private expression of religion was allowed.
The church has, however, seen a revival since religious freedom was restored in 1991, with more than 250 churches restored or rebuilt, and more than 100 clergy being ordained. It has 909 parishes spread all around Albania, and around 500,000 to 550,000 faithful. The number is claimed to be as high as 700,000 by some Eastern Orthodox sources, and higher when considering the Albanian diaspora.
History
The Christian religious vocabulary of Albanian is mostly Latin, including terms such "to bless", "altar," and "to receive communion". It indicates that Albanians were Christianized under the Latin-based liturgy and ecclesiastical order which became known as "Roman Catholic" in later centuries. Ecclesiastically, Christians in Albania, as part of the province of Illyricum, were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome (2nd-8th century).. From 732 to 733 AD the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Illyricum was transferred to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.Ekonomou Andrew J.. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590-752. Roman Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Lexington Books, 2007, , p. 275 The Great Schism of 1054 formalized the split of Christianity into two branches, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, which was reflected in Albania through the emergence of a Catholic north and Orthodox south.
Orthodox Church during the Ottoman Period The official recognition of the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Porte resulted in the Eastern Orthodox population being tolerated until the late 18th century... "The Ottoman conquest between the end of the fourteenth century and the mid-fifteenth century introduced a third religion – Islam - but the Turks did not at first use force in its expansion, and it was only in the 1600s that large-scale conversion to Islam began – chiefly, at first, among Albanian Catholics."; p.204. "The Orthodox community enjoyed broad toleration at the hands of the Sublime Porte until the late eighteenth century."; p. 204. "In the late eighteenth century Russian agents began stirring up the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman empire against the Sublime Porte. In the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768-74 and 1787-91 Orthodox Albanians rose against the Turks. In the course of the second revolt the "New Academy" in Voskopoje was destroyed (1789), and at the end of the second Russo-Turkish war more than a thousand Orthodox fled to Russia on Russian warships. As a result of these revolts, the Porte now applied force to Islamicize the Albanian Orthodox population, adding economic incentives to provide positive stimulus. In 1798 Ali Pasha of Janina led Ottoman forces against Christian believers assembled in their churches to celebrate Easter in the villages of Shen Vasil and Nivica e Bubarit. The bloodbath unleashed against these believers frightened Albanian Christians in other districts and inspired a new wave of mass conversions to Islam.". The Eastern Orthodox population of Albania was integrated into the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the population of central and south-eastern Albania being under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, and the population of south-western Albania being under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Ioannina...
During the late 18th century, the poverty of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the illiterate clergy, a lack of clergy in some areas, liturgy in a language other than Albanian.. and the reliance of the bishoprics of Durrës and southern Albania upon the declining Archbishopric of Ohrid, due in part to simony, weakened the faith among the church's adherents and reduced the ability for Eastern Orthodox Albanians to resist conversion to Islam..
Movement for establishing an autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church
In the 19th century, Eastern Orthodox Albanians under the Patriarchate of Constantinople had liturgy and schooling in Greek, which was also the lingua franca in the South, and in the late Ottoman period their political thinking was divided: although most Eastern Orthodox Christians wished for the end of Ottoman rule, some of them - especially the upper class - desired to be part of a Greek state, some sought Greek-Albanian cooperation and a Greek-Albanian federation state or dual monarchy, and some who sought Albanian statehood.. para. 2, 27.. "The political thinking of the Orthodox Albanians was divided into two categories. Those who lived in Albania were dominated by Greek influence. The majority of them- especially the notables-desired union with Greece. The Orthodox Christians in general had an intense hatred of Ottoman rule. Although this feeling was shared by their co-religionists who lived in the colonies abroad, their political thinking was different." For Eastern Orthodox Albanians, Albanianism was closely associated with Hellenism, linked through the faith of Eastern Orthodoxy. However, during the Eastern crisis this premise was rejected by some Albanian Eastern Orthodox Christians, because of the growing competition between the Albanian and Greek national movements over parts of Epirus.. These issues also generated a reaction against Greek nationalists that drove the Albanian desire to stress a separate cultural identity.."However, Greek nationalism continued to be a source of concern for Albanian nationalists later on in the century. After the creation of the Greek state in 1830, and in the light of its mounting expansionist ambitions in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Albanian desire to assert a separate cultural identity represented also a reaction against Greek nationalists, who coveted territories inhabited by Albanians in the Ottoman Balkans, especially in the fiercely contested vilayet of Yiannina, a province containing a mixture of different populations.".
The religious division among Albanians meant that Albanian nationalism could not be based on religion and instead Albanian nationalism as it developed tended to promote interreligious cooperation, from the point of its inceptionDuijzings, Ger. "Religion and the Politics of 'Albanianism'". In Schwandler-Stevens and Jurgen, Albanian Identities: Myth and History. Pages 61-62. Page 62: "nationalist rhetoric declared it [religion/millet] to be unimportant (and that religious fanaticism to be alien to the Albanian soul)", page 61:"From the beginning, national ideologists propagated a kind of 'civil religion' of Albanianism, which was epitomized in Pashko Vasa's famous and influential nationalist poem O moj Shqipni ("O poor Albania"): "Awaken, Albanians, wake from your slumber. Let us all be brothers, swear an oath not to mind church or mosque. The faith of the Albanian is Albanianism!'" in the writings of Naum Veqilharxhi.Meksi, Fedhon. "Veqilharxhi, babai I alfabetit edhe abetares shqiptare". 21 October 2011. Although the Eastern Orthodox were a minority among Albanians, the Albanian nationalist movement began among the Orthodox, and subsequently spread to other religious communities among Albanians.Enis Kelmendi (2014). "Religion in Regard to Albanian National Movement". ISSN 2308-0825. Eastern Orthodox Albanians especially in the diaspora. "The Orthodox nationalists were mainly active outside the Ottoman Empire. They made their greatest contribution to the national cause (mainly educational and propaganda work) through the Albanian colonies." and from Korçë and its nearby regions began to affiliate with the movement by working together with Muslim Albanians regarding shared socio-geopolitical Albanian interests and aims, causing concerns for Greece. "The Greeks too sought to curtail the spread of nationalism amongst the southern Orthodox Albanians, not only in Albania but also in the Albanian colonies in America.".. "Περιορίζοντας τις αρχικές του ισλαμιστικές εξάρσεις, το αλβανικό εθνικιστικό κίνημα εξασφάλισε την πολιτική προστασία των δύο ισχυρών δυνάμεων της Αδριατικής, της Ιταλίας και της Αυστρίας, που δήλωναν έτοιμες να κάνουν ό,τι μπορούσαν για να σώσουν τα Βαλκάνια από την απειλή του Πανσλαβισμού και από την αγγλογαλλική κηδεμονία που υποτίθεται ότι θα αντιπροσώπευε η επέκταση της Ελλάδας. Η διάδοση των αλβανικών ιδεών στο χριστιανικό πληθυσμό άρχισε να γίνεται ορατή και να ανησυχεί ιδιαίτερα την Ελλάδα." "[By limiting the Islamic character, the Albanian nationalist movement secured civil protection from two powerful forces in the Adriatic, Italy and Austria, which was ready to do what they could to save the Balkans from the threat of Pan-Slavism and the Anglo French tutelage that is supposed to represent its extension through Greece. The dissemination of ideas in Albanian Christian population started to become visible and very concerning to Greece]." because it threatened the aspirations to incorporate Epirus into Greece, and because those Greeks who sought an Albanian-Greek confederation took a negative view of other foreign influences among Albanians.Kofos, Evangelos. "Greek reaction to developments leading to the Albanian league of Prizren." Balkan Studies 23.2 (1982): 349–362. Pages 349–350: "The prevailing view among 19th century Greeks, which somehow is reflected in the consular dispatches, was that Albanians and Greeks were kin peoples. Being small in numbers, compared to the Balkan Slavs, they could not survive as separate entities, but were bound, one way or another, to form a unified state. The example of Austria-Hungary exerted a strong influence in that direction. Another argument that seemed to support this idea, was the case of the Albanian-speaking Orthodox Christians residing in the Greek Kingdom. These Christians had a long tradition of association with the Greek cause — particularly during the Greek War of Independence — and had, since, been fully integrated into Greek society. Furthermore, the fact that a similar process was underway among Albanian-speaking Orthodox Christians residing in Ottoman-held Macedonia and Epirus, was, to the Greeks, a further indication, that the two people could coexist under a common state roof. Understandably, these notions were shared by most Greek consuls serving in Epirus and Albania. As a result, in their reports on Albanian developments, they tended to take a negative attitude of foreign propaganda among Albanians, and, in addition, to view with much skepticism signs of an Albanian national awakening." Although Greek schools were for a while the only way Eastern Orthodox children could become educated and at Greek schools children where they were exposed to Greek nationalism, Eastern Orthodox Albanians would instead come to play an active and often leading role in the Albanian national independence movement, often at great cost to themselves and their families.