142 years since the birth of Fan.S.Noli/ Life, works and contribution of the Great Man

2024-01-06 21:01:00, Kulturë CNA

Fan S. Noli

Fan.S.Noli was born on January 6, 1882 and died on March 13, 1965.

Fan.S.Noli was a writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, historian, orator, archbishop, metropolitan and founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church and the Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America, served as prime minister and regent of Albania in 1924 during the June Revolution .

Fan Noli is honored as a champion of literature, history, theology, diplomacy, journalism, music, national unity and ecumenism. He played an important role in the consolidation of Albanian as the national language of Albania with numerous translations of masterpieces of world literature.

He also wrote in English, as a researcher and author of a number of publications on Skanderbeg, Shakespeare, Beethoven, religious texts and translations.

Fan.S.Noli made a translation of the New Testament into English, The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the approved Greek text of the Church of Constantinople and the Church of Greece, published in 1961.

The life of Fan.S.Noli

142 years since the birth of Fan.S.Noli/ Life, works and contribution of the

Noli graduated from Harvard in 1912, the New England Conservatory of Music in 1938, and completed his doctorate at Boston University in 1945.

He was ordained a priest in 1908, thus establishing the Albanian Church and raising the Albanian language to church use. He stayed briefly in Albania after the declaration of independence in 1912. After World War I, Noli led diplomatic efforts for the reunification of Albania and received the support of US President Woodrow Wilson. He later pursued a diplomatic-political career in Albania, successfully leading the Albanian bid for membership in the League of Nations.

A respected figure who remained critical of corruption and injustice in the Albanian government, Fan Noli was asked to lead the 1924 June Revolution . He then served as prime minister until his revolutionary government was overthrown by Ahmet Zogu. He was exiled to Italy and settled permanently in the United States in the 1930s, taking American citizenship and agreeing to end his political involvement. He spent the rest of his life as an academic, religious leader and writer.

Fan Noli was born in 1882 in Ibriktepe, a small village located in the Ottoman Thracian Vilayet of Adrianople, originally settled by Albanians from Qyteza, in the district of Korça and known to the townspeople as such at the time.

In addition to Albanian, he spoke many languages ??such as Greek, English, French, Turkish and Arabic.

Through his contacts with the Albanian immigrant movement, he became an ardent supporter of his country's nationalist movement and moved to the United States in 1906.

During April 1912, Vatra, an organization of the Albanian-American diaspora, was founded with Noli and Faik Konica serving as its leaders. He returned to Europe to promote Albanian independence, setting foot in Albania for the first time in 1913.

Noli returned to the United States during World War I, serving as the head of the Vatra organization, which effectively made him the leader of the Albanian diaspora.

The political life of Fan.S.Noli

In 1921, Noli entered the Parliament of Albania as a representative of the pro-British liberal People's Party, the main liberal movement in the country. The other parties were the pro-Italian conservative "Progressive Party" founded by Mehdi Frashëri and led by Ahmet Zogu, and the "Popular Party" of Xhafer Ypi. Zog's conservatives would dominate the political scene. The Congress of Berat in 1922 was convened to officially lay the foundations of an Albanian Orthodox Church which consecrated Fan Noli as bishop of Korça and primate of all Albania, while the establishment of the church was seen as important for the preservation of the Albanian language and national unity.

Noli served for a short time as Foreign Minister in Xhafer Ypi's government. This was a period of intense unrest in the country between liberals and conservatives. After a failed assassination attempt against Zog, the conservatives took revenge by killing another liberal politician, Avni Rustemi. Noli's speech at Rustem's funeral was so powerful that liberal supporters rose up against Zog and forced him to flee to Yugoslavia in March 1924. Noli was appointed prime minister and regent on June 16, 1924.

Despite his efforts to reform the country, Noli's "Twenty Point Program" was unpopular and his government was overthrown by Zog loyalists on Christmas Eve that year.

Noli founded the "National Committee" also known as KONARE in Vienna. The committee published the periodical called "National Freedom".

The committee aimed to overthrow Zog and restore democracy. Despite the efforts, the committee's access and influence in Albania would be limited.

In 1928, KONARE changed its name to "Committee of National Liberation". Meanwhile, in Albania, after three years of republican regime, the "National Council" declared Albania a Constitutional Monarchy and Ahmet Zogu became king. Noli returned to the United States in 1932 and formed a Republican opposition to Zog, who had since proclaimed himself "King Bird I." During the following years, he continued his education, studying and learning Byzantine music, and continued to develop and promote the autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church that he had helped found.

142 years since the birth of Fan.S.Noli/ Life, works and contribution of the

After the war, Noli established some ties with the communist government of Enver Hoxha, which took power in 1944. He unsuccessfully asked the American government to recognize the regime, but Hoxha's increasing persecution of all religions prevented Noli's church from maintaining connection with the Orthodox hierarchy in Albania. Despite the anti-clerical tendency of Hoxha's regime, Noli's ardent Albanian nationalism brought the bishop to the attention of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI's Boston office kept the bishop under investigation for more than a decade with no final result of the investigation.

In 1945, Fan S. Noli received a Ph.D. in history from Boston University, writing a dissertation on Skanderbeg. Meanwhile, he also conducted research in the Department of Music at Boston University, publishing a biography on Ludwig van Beethoven. He also composed a one-movement symphony called Skanderbeg in 1947. Toward the end of his life, Noli retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he died in 1965.

Fan Noli was buried in the "Forest Hills" cemetery, located in the southern part of the "Jamaica Plain" neighborhood of Boston./ CNA