Pjetër Budi

Bust in Burrël

Pjetër Budi (Italian name form Pietro Budi ; * 1566 in Gur i Bardhë ; † December 1622 ) was bishop of the diocese of Sapa and Sarda in northern Albania . He gained importance as a translator and author of religious writings in Albanian . Budi is one of only half a dozen Albanian authors of the 17th century; he is at the beginning of the literary history of his people. His life was shaped by the effort to strengthen the Catholic minority in the Christian faith, which was increasingly persecuted in the Ottoman-ruled Albania. Budi also got involved politically by trying theMoving Holy See and Christian States in support of an anti-Turkish uprising in Albania.

Life

Pjetër Budi came from a small village in the mountainous region of Mat . According to his own account, he spent his youth in the service of various Albanian bishops. In their households received elementary training. There were no schools in Albania in the 16th century. Later Budi studied for some time at the Illyrian Seminary in Loreto near Ancona. At the age of 21 he was ordained a priest and was sent to Kosovo as a pastor .

During a provincial synod, the Archbishop of Bar, Tomasso Orsino, appointed him Vicar General for Serbia in 1599 . As such, he was responsible for the Catholics who lived in significant numbers in western Kosovo in parts of Macedonia and in what are now Albanian regions. When Budi began his service as vicar general, all but two of the Albanian dioceses were vacant and he had to take care of the clergy and the pastoral care of the Albanian Catholics in the inaccessible mountain regions almost alone. In addition to numerous visitation trips, he tried to influence the priests subordinate to him with pastoral letters and ecclesiastical writings translated into Albanian. But he could not have anything printed within the Ottoman borders.

Pjetër Budi spent a lot of time on his political project to prepare an uprising that would liberate the Christians in the Balkans from Turkish rule. To this end, he established contacts with dissatisfied tribal leaders and clergy, not only with Albanians, but also with Serbs and Bosnians.

In 1616 Budi traveled to Rome to study. There he worked on the translations of the sacred writings that established his literary fame among the Albanians. His four works, which have survived to this day, were published here by 1621. From Rome, Budi went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in March 1618 . When he returned in September of the following year, he tried to establish contacts with important members of the Curia in order to win over the Holy See to support his plans for revolt. He was unsuccessful, on the one hand because he lacked the protection of influential curials, on the other hand because he was not familiar with the customs of the papal authorities. After all, the curia did notice him, because on July 20, 1621 he was appointed bishop of Sapa and Sarda.

Back in Albania he could not even hold office for two years. In December 1622, Bishop Budi drowned trying to cross the Drin River.

plant

Pjëter Budi's most important writing was the Doktrina e Kërshtenë (German Christian doctrine) published in 1618 . The book is a translation of the then popular catechism Christianae doctrinae explicatio by Robert Bellarmin . Budi added 50 pages of religious poetry to the book, some of which were translations of Latin verses, some of which were originally Albanian poetry. They are the oldest surviving verses in the Gegic dialect.

The Albanian bishop also published a version of the Rituale Romanum , which he had provided with numerous Albanian-language commentaries. The rituals of the Catholic Church contain the Latin prayers that are to be said when the sacraments are administered , at funerals, blessings, etc. It also describes the actions that priests and believers must perform. Given the low level of education of the Albanian clergy, a ritual commented on in the mother tongue was an important aid for the correct administration of the sacraments.

Budi also wrote a 16-page guide for celebrating the Holy Mass: Cusc zzote mesce keto cafsce i duhete me scerbyem ( Eng . Whoever celebrates Mass should obey this). Finally he translated the confessional Specchio di Confessione by Emerio de Bonis into his mother tongue, under the Albanian title Pasëqyra e t'rrëfytemit . Budi enriched both the confession mirror and the edition of the aforementioned ritual with religious verses in the Gegic dialect.

A number of letters from Pjëter Budi have also survived. Some of them were reprinted in modern editions.

literature

• Pasechetra etrefetemit E atit Emerio de Bonis mesaa tyera cafsce sciume tefr uytuoscime tescpijrtit ... Cioe Specchio della Confessione del p. Emerio de Bonis, con alcuni dicorsi spirituali vtilissimi a quelli che non intendono altra lingua, che la materna Albanese. Tradotti nella medesima lingua da Monsignor Pietro Budi vescouo Sapatense, e Sardanense. Roma 1621 (original edition of the confessional mirror).
• Dottrina christiana composta per ordine della fel. me. di papa Clemente 8. dal rp Roberto Bellarmino ... Tradotta in lingua albanese dal reuer. don Pietro Budi. Roma 1664 (The Doktrina e Kërshtenë in a follow-up edition from 1664 sponsored by the Propaganda Congregation ).
• Robert Elsie (Ed.): Early Albania. A Reader of Historical Texts. 11th – 17th Centuries. (= Balkanological publications. 39). Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-447-04783-6 .
• Robert Elsie: Albanian Literature. An Overview of its History and Development. In: Österreichische Osthefte 17 (2003), special volume Albania. Pp. 243–276 ( online ; PDF; 208 kB).
• Relatione fatta all'Illustrissimo e Reverendissimo Signor Cardinal Gozzadino dal Vescovo Sappatense e Sardanense Pietro Budi, di Roma 15 Settembre 1621. In: Injac Zamputi (ed.): Documents të shekujve XVI-XVII per historinë e Shqipërisë. Vol. 3: 1603-1621. Tirana 1989, pp. 376-389.
• Rexhep Ismajli (ed.): Pjetër Budi - Poezi (1618–1621). Prishtina 1986. (Annotated edition of Budi's verses).
• Eqrem Cabej: Për gjenezën e literaturës shqipe. Shkodër 1939.

Web links

• Entry on Pjetër Budi on catholic-hierarchy.org