Religion as an Instrument of International Relations: The Attempt of Byzantine Catholics to Spread in Albania, 1895-1939

Ardit Bido

Abstract

The effort of Byzantine Catholics to spread among Albanians had a historical legacy. The main group of Byzantine Catholics before the twentieth century was the Albanian Diaspora of Italy, a compact group called Arbëreshë that descended from Orthodox Albanians that fled Balkans after the Ottoman conquest. However their two century presence in Southern Albania (Himara region) was interrupted only to restart after the birth of Albanian nationalism at the end of the XIX century. This time, the presence of Byzantine Catholics in Albania was interlinked with the complicated political circumstances regarding the independence of this European nation. As Greece tried to assimilate Orthodox Albanians with the help of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Byzantine Catholics found the opportunity to spread among Orthodox Albanian nationalists. On the other hand, after the independence the Albanian Orthodox Church, Byzantine Catholics tried to spread among Hellenophile Orthodox Albanians. In this paper we will analyze the efforts of Byzantine Catholics to spread in Albania in the view of the broader political interplay between Albania, Greece and Italy and the reasons of their eventual failure.


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