Serafin Koda

Serafin Koda OFM (born April 25, 1893 in Janjeva in Kosovo , † May 11, 1947 in Lezha ) was a Roman Catholic religious priest of the Franciscans who was arrested and tortured for his faith in the atheistic Albania of the Enver Hoxha regime. He died as a result of torture and is one of the Thirty-Eight Martyrs of Albania .

Life

Gasper and Antonieta Radiqi's son was ordained a priest on July 30, 1915. He served as pastor in the villages of Dushman, Shala, Prekal, Bushkash and Vukël in the Albanian Alps and in Lezha. He is said to have worked in his environment as a convinced and convincing missionary together with his Franciscan brothers, including Çiril Cani, Rrok Gurashi, Robert Ashta and Mëhill Miraj.

After the shootings in 1945, with the death of Bishop Luigj Bumçi , the diocese of Lezha was without a bishop, and Serafin Koda tried to provide pastoral care together with the episcopal vicar Ndre Lufin.

In 1947, Koda was arrested and severely tortured, especially when he refused to testify against his confreres. His flesh was torn from his body under the torture. His neck was scratched until the neck veins were bloody, so Bishop Frano Illia recalls. The nurse Marie Ndoja saw him die and could not help him.

Grave opening and transfer of the bones

Marie Ndoja knew exactly the location of the grave (near the local administration of Lezha) using the tree that stood next to it. In 1995, shortly after communism was overcome, his grave was opened. Parts of his vestments and his shoes were still preserved, the bones were arranged in the same way as the body had been thrown into the pit. In a solemn ceremony, which the contemporary witness Flavio Cavallani also felt as painful, his bones were buried again, now in the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in Lezha.

beatification

The beatification of Serafin Koda and 37 other martyrs took place on November 5, 2016 in Shkodra. The Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints , Cardinal Angelo Amato , presided over the celebrations on behalf of Pope Francis .

literature

• Pjetër Pepa: Tragjedia dhe Lavdia e Klerit Katolik në Shqipëri . Shtëpia Botuese 55, Tirana 2007, Vol. I, pp. 762-764. This includes the aforementioned statements by Bishop Illia and Fr Flavio Cavallani.
• Markus WE Peters: History of the Catholic Church in Albania 1919–1993 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 145.

Web links

• Portrait of Kodas on the website of the Archdiocese of Shkodra-Pult (Albanian)