Martirizimet i klerit katolik gjatë shekujve XVII-XVIII të pushtimit osman në Shkodër e rrethina

While studying the history of the Catholic Church under Ottoman rule, I encountered numerous accounts concerning the persecution and martyrdom of the Catholic clergy in Shkodra. This article focuses chiefly on several cases of martyrdom that took place in the province and city of Shkodra during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although some of these martyrs are already known, a renewed examination of this subject seems necessary, since Albanian readers have generally encountered their lives through publications written mainly in Latin and Italian. These texts often employ the language of early modern ecclesiastical documentation, which remains difficult to understand even for readers with some knowledge of Italian. The present article is based on archival reports and documents, as well as on the relevant scholarly literature. It examines the lives and martyrdom of seven religious martyrs who belonged to the Catholic clergy, most of them to the Franciscan Order. The clerics treated here are Dom Mark Kishaj of Shkodra; Father Salvatore da Offida; Father Paolo da Mantova; Ferdinando d’Albizzola; Giacomo Zampa da Sarnano; Monsignor Anton Nigri (Zeza), an Albanian from Dajç in Zadrima; and Antonio Sorani. Their stories are, at the same time, fragments of the history of Shkodra itself, helping to clarify and complete our understanding of the wider context of events in this difficult period. As in many biographies of martyrs and in various hagiographical writings, these accounts contain numerous parallels with the life and Passion of Jesus Christ. This is especially evident in scenes in which the accused cleric is brought before the kadi or the pasha, recalling Christ’s appearance before Pontius Pilate, who declares his innocence (John 19:11–15). Similarly, the episode in which Ottoman soldiers seize the sacred vessels used for Mass after the capture of Fathers Ferdinando d’Albizzola and Giacomo Zampa, sell them, and divide the money among themselves recalls the biblical scene in which Roman soldiers divide Christ’s garments (John 19:23–24). Such Gospel parallels occur frequently in these reports and would have been readily recognized by attentive readers and Christian believers alike.