Shtjefën Kurti

Shtjefën Kurti

Dom Shtjefën Kurti
Religion Roman Catholic
Personal
Nationality Albanian
Born (1898-12-24)24 December 1898
Ferizoviç, now Ferizaj, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
(modern Ferizaj, Kosovo)
Died 20 October 1971(1971-10-20) (aged 72)
Fushë, Albania

Shtjefën Kurti (December 24, 1898, Ferizoviç, now Uroševac – October 20, 1971, Fushë)[1] was an Albanian Catholic priest.[2] On April 26, 2016, Pope Francis approved the martyrdom of Kurti and 37 other Albanian Catholics, paving the way to their beatification.[3]

Life and activity

Shtjefen Kurti studied in Albania, Graz, Feldkirch, Innsbruck and Rome. Kurti was ordained a priest in Rome on 13 May 1924.[1]

Father Kurti was a parish priest in Skopje and Novoselo near Gjakova from 1921 to 1929, in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (today Macedonia and Kosovo). After the murder of fellow Albanian priest Shtjefën Gjeçovi, Kurti fled to Albania and then moved on to Romania. He wrote a memorandum to the League of Nations regarding the persecution of Catholic Albanians in Kosovo (May 5, 1930). He would move on to serve as a priest in Shna Prendja (Krujë), Gurës, and Tirana.[4]

Kurti was arrested for the first time in Tirana on 28 October 1946 and imprisoned, at first in Tirana, then later in Burrel. He was sentenced to death, but his sentence was changed to 20 years' imprisonment and he was set free on 2 May 1963, after serving 17 years. Twice during the 1960s, Father Kurti suffered psychological torture, including simulated executions, during the second of which he was forced to dig a grave he was made to believe would be his own. After his release, he continued his ministry in Tirana, Juba, and Gurës. In 1967, after he prevented thugs from destroying his church, he was arrested by state security and sentenced to 16 years of forced labor.[4]

Death

In 1970, even though it was forbidden by to administer the sacraments, a lady asked him to baptize her son. Father Kurti accepted and baptized the boy secretly. This led to him getting re-arrested and sentenced to death. Father Kurti was executed on 20 October 1971[1] (according to another source, February 1972[5]), although the Vatican became aware of it only in 1973, because it was kept secret from local authorities.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 The servant of God priest Shtjefen Kurti, Catholic Church of Shkoder, Martyrs Office, 2008, retrieved 2013-10-09
  2. ↑ Miranda Vickers (28 January 2011). The Albanians: A Modern History. I.B.Tauris. pp. 195–. ISBN 978-0-85771-025-3.
  3. ↑ Martyrs Killed in odium fidei under Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, Hagiography Circle, retrieved 2016-04-27
  4. 1 2 Peters, Markus W. E. (2003). Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Albanien 1919-1993. Albanische Forschungen (in German). 23. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 278. ISBN 3-447-04784-4.
  5. ↑ Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee (1990), Human rights in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania: a report of the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee, 1990, MLIHRC, p. 90, ISBN 9780929293059, retrieved 2013-10-09
  6. ↑ Don Shtjefën Kurti/ Si u pushkatua prifti katolik [Don Shtjefën Kurti / How the Catholic priest was shot] (in Albanian), abc News, 2011-09-13, retrieved 2013-10-09
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