During Ottoman rule (late 16th century up to early 20th century), the liturgical language of the Orthodox Church in Albania was Greek, according to an agreement between the Ottoman government and the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Orthodox population was mainly in the South and Greek influence upon the Orthodox Albanians was very strong, since Greek schools and the Byzantine rite’s churches were the only educational institution in the area.
Albanian Orthodox clergy or laity who made efforts to teach Albanian or use it in worship were excommunicated by the Church, and some of them were killed.[1] The local authorities, mostly Albanian Muslims, were ruthless to execute the government’s orders and keep the multiethnic Orthodox population under the Greek rule.
With the start of the 20th century, the Albanians, and especially the Albanian colonies outside of Albania, began to coordinate their efforts to gain the independence of their country from the Turks, which was achieved only in 1912. They realized, though, that it was impossible to be independent while at the same time having foreign religious leaders, and consequently foreign influences, for the three religions of Albania are Islam, Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
Many Albanian politicians were confused and suggested that Albanians should be united by embracing one common faith instead of being divided in three religions. And the proposed “national religion” was randomly selected by each patriotic preacher’s inherited or chosen faith: Islam, Catholicism or Protestantism. The Albanian Muslims were and are very flexible on changing religion according to their own interests. The famous sentence of the Albanian nationalist doctrine is even louder: “The religion of the Albanian is the Albanianness.”
Nevertheless, no Albanian Orthodox ever suggested the conversion of all Albanians into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Furthermore one of them, the young Fan Noli, opposed these opinions and supported the most pragmatic idea of “Albanizing” the present religions of the country by electing Albanian leaders and using Albanian in worship.[2]
The idea of having an independent Albanian Orthodox Church was not new in Noli’s days, but he was keen to become the central figure of this movement in the United States. When the Albanian Orthodox of America decided to ask the Russian Church to ordain an Albanian priest for their pastoral needs, Noli insisted that he was the persona grata to undertake this position. He defeated the other candidates and blocked the process of bringing to North America other Albanian speaking clergymen.
Noli knew what he was doing: “…I concluded that the best way for propaganda here is through the religion because one of the obstacles for our cause is the fanaticism that has been planted by the clergy and, since the fanaticism has been planted by the clergymen, should be reaped and rooted out by clergymen, with the difference that these priests should be Albanian Orthodox.”[3]
I want to emphasize, though, that Noli was not an atheist, as many Albanian and Greek scholars contend. But he was definitely not the traditional model of the Orthodox clergyman. His only passion during those years was Albania, and he was ready to do anything, even though he did not feel a calling to priesthood. But as a priest Fan Noli had the opportunity to preach and organize more effectively the Albanians in America who were mostly Orthodox Christians from southern Albania.
In his late 20s, Noli was dreaming of planting this Church of the Albanian Diaspora in his homeland and of being the first Albanian Archbishop.[4] In addition, Noli concluded that only as a priest would he have the financial means to study literature at Harvard, which he had not been able to do at the University of Athens.[5]
FIRST PERIOD OF LITURGICAL TRANSLATIONS: 1908-1914
It was in 1908 that Noli was ordained, and, as a condition for having an Albanian Orthodox Mission under his jurisdiction, was asked by the Russian Archbishop to present for approval a printed Service Book in Albanian.
This put Noli into a difficult position because it was hard for him to start this monumental work of liturgical translations by himself. He asked the help of Greek-educated Albanian philologists and theologians but no one was to be found in America, and even though he announced his request in the Albanian press, there were no positive responses from Albania or the Albanian communities abroad. Some other Orthodox Albanians were not opposing the translation in theory, but they had the same hesitations as today in Greece, where some theologians are waiting for a second St John Chrysostom to translate the Liturgy into Modern Greek… Having no other solutions, Fr. Theofan began the translation into Albanian by himself.
When Noli decided to translate the Liturgy, he did not look to any previous work in the field. In actuality, there were no liturgical printed translations in Albanian and I doubt if he had the opportunity to see any manuscripts of fragmentary previous works. Furthermore, Noli does not mention anywhere the first printed translation of the New Testament into Albanian, published in 1827 by Archbishop Gregorios Argyrokastrites. But he knew very well Kostandin Kristoforidhi’s translations of the New Testament and some books of the Old Testament.[6]
It is very important to see Noli’s initial ideological agenda in his translations, comparing his works with those of Kristoforidhi, because his biblical translations were the basis of the existing Orthodox liturgical terminology in Albanian. Kristoforidhi was a very challenging figure for Noli as a translator of Liturgy.
Kristoforidhi had absolute authority in Albanian letters and especially in Orthodox terminology, which was created through his translations into Tosk, the Albanian dialect of southern Albania. Most Orthodox Albanians spoke Tosk, which was Noli’s language as well and would be the language of his translations and his works in general in his Albanian publications. Although Noli admired Kristoforidhi’s New Testament translation into Tosk, he would not accept his works as modern patterns in his new school of translations into Albanian. This was very daring, and after his liturgical publications were issued, Albanian scholars attacked Noli because he did not follow Kristoforidhi’s way of translating certain Greek terms.
For instance, a Greek philology graduate, Aleksandër Xhuvani, criticized Noli for not agreeing to the translation of the Greek term mysterion into Albanian, as mister for both meanings mystery and sacrament. Noli used mister for mystery, but sakrament for sacrament, supporting his opinion according to the meanings that this Greek word has in French. But Xhuvani insists that “since I know Greek there is no way to ‘suffer’ and explain it through French and other languages.” Although Xhuvani’s article has a purist spirit for the most part, in this case Noli was proved wrong.[7]
Noli and Kristoforidhi had different backgrounds, decidedly different ideological influences, different conditions for their work and a different reception for their publications in Albania. Kristoforidhi was born in Elbasan, in central Albania, where the two main dialects of Albanian (Gheg and Tosk) meet. He was also well known as a linguist of the Albanian language who had studied in several countries and was professionally prepared for his translations. Fan Noli was not born in Albania and he knew only his forefathers’ sub-dialect of Tosk, which he only spoke and was trying to learn to write, just a few years before he made his liturgical translations.
Kristoforidhi worked for many years on his translations and he had the support of the British Biblical Society for his publications. Noli translated the church services and the hymns in a very short period of time, during his years of studying literature at Harvard University, without professional training. The only support that Noli had was by Albanian patriots in Albanian colonies outside Albania, who were convinced by Noli’s speeches that these books should be published for the salvation of the nation and must be published as soon as possible, “regardless of their quality.” [8]
Kostandin Kristoforidhi came from one generation older than Noli, which meant that his views about the language were strictly purist and his purpose was to create a national language, taking out the Greek and other foreign words. Kristoforidhi’s purpose was to translate the Bible writing in two dialects of Albanian, giving to the Albanians the impression that Gheg and Tosk are not that different and should be united in one national language. Kristoforidhi worked hard to prove with his translations that the Albanian language has the potential to express all modern terminology without borrowing foreign words.
Kristoforidhi used the Greek alphabet for the Tosk publications and the Latin alphabet for Gheg. But Noli had a different ideology about the standardization of Albanian. He wanted to make Tosk a literary language for all Albanians, enriching it with new modern terms from other western languages, thus removing many purist words from Krisroforidhi’s tradition, and using only the Latin alphabet. Noli used Gheg only in a satirical political poem and in some official documents during his tenure as Prime Minister, which were most likely written by his secretary with Noli’s signature.
Last and not least, although Kristoforidhi was Orthodox, he was a layman working for a Protestant organization and not a priest of the organized church. He did not have the pressure of time and had greater independence to act according to his beliefs. Noli was not a layman but a priest under the Russian Orthodox jurisdiction. He did not have the luxury of waiting, studying, and perfecting his translations. These texts were the first step toward creating an Albanian Church in the United States, and the quality of the translations was a secondary matter.
When Fr. Noli started his liturgical translations, he already had a good background with literary translations. In 1909 he spoke nine languages. But he had two serious problems to face. First, Noli had a cultural background in Liturgy and in Church practices, but not a theological one. As a Christian Orthodox, he had a good intuitive knowledge of church issues, but that was not enough. Second, he did not have at that time a linguistic background in the Albanian language. This would have helped Noli to make a better translation of the liturgical terms in Albanian. Being a gifted poet though, he overcame most of these obstacles and created a literary tradition beyond his time.
While many Albanians could not understand how a young priest would not accept Kristoforidhi’s authority in Albanian, Noli had a different view on his life: “I am Nietzsche’s partisan,” he used to write to his friends. Noli believed that he was chosen by God to be the Apostle of the Albanian nation. He had the feeling that he was born to liberate Albania and save it from the Greeks and the Turks. And everything was possible with “discipline of the mind” and especially with the obedience of the hoi polloi to the one “who is stronger in mind and in knowledge.”[9]
It is surprising how Noli managed to translate all these texts while at the same time studying full time at Harvard. He was also the editor of Dielli, a weekly Albanian political newspaper, and the pastor of thousands Albanian Orthodox immigrants. Before his graduation he traveled in Europe to preach and prepare the way for an independent Albanian Church in the Albanian colonies in Romania, Russia etc. However, Noli’s ecclesiastical activity in these years was only part of his work in Albanian politics and letters.
There are six books from this period, most of them dedicated to the Russian Archbishop Platon. The first book is a translation of the Holy Week services and hymns,[10] and was translated very quickly to be in time for Easter. From this book, we see how Noli was struggling to create his personality in the Albanian world. His language is full of sub-dialectical forms, compared to the other five liturgical books of this period. His linguistic style is not consistent, the biblical readings are cited from Kristoforidhi, and he chose to use one of the many alphabets of that time. A few months later, the Congress on the Albanian Alphabet was held in Macedonia. Fr. Noli adopted the new alphabet, although he did not agree with the decision reached by Albanian scholars representing both dialects.
After the second publication (the Service Book), Noli made clear the purpose and the nature of his ecclesiastical work. He was not willing to undertake a full translation of the Liturgy and the Bible of the Orthodox Church into Albanian, a work which even today does not exist. The young priest sincerely promised his fellow Orthodox Albanians to provide them with the most important services in Albanian, as an indispensable tool for worship in their own language. In Noli’s notes for all these publications we see that the author is asking for financial support from the Albanians, without which he could not complete the project.
Noli’s decision to publish these translations raised the question of providing the canon for the Albanian Liturgy. In the first period (1908 – 1914), Noli selected the most useful services and hymns, trying to give an exact translation from the Greek and reining in his tendency towards free translation. Instead of translating the whole Parakletike, he published a small Lutjesore, translating only the Sunday hymns (Saturday evening Vespers and Sunday morning Orthros), without shortening the hymns and the services. In such a way, Noli was helping the Albanians to have a full service on Sundays and the most common feasts of the liturgical year.
If Noli had had an exclusively spiritual motivation, along with the necessary time, he would have also translated the daily hymns from the twelve-volume hymnological work, Menaia, and given the full translation of the Lenten Book, Triodion, and the Easter Pentikostarion. For the weekday services of the great feasts, Noli translated and published a one-volume anthology from Menaion, compiling thus a Festal Menaion in Albanian. And from Triodion and Pentikostarion he translated the Sunday services and the Holy Week services and hymns.
While Noli was publishing the Service Book, he began to inform and activate the Albanian Orthodox inside and outside of Albania, asking them to send petitions to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the independence of the Albanian Church, using the fact that the Liturgy had been translated by an Orthodox Albanian priest. But he also asked Albanian patriots to support the recognition of his translations by the Russian Church by sending letters to Archbishop Platon stating that the translations were accurate, whether they actually believed that to be true or not.[11]
In these translations Noli enriched the language with foreign modern terms and created his literary style in Albanian. Noli was trying to create a literary Albanian language in keeping with the modern terminology of European languages.
The philosophy of these translations ran counter to Noli’s will and talent. He was being challenged to provide literal translations, whereas his second liturgical translations (1941 – 1952) and all his future literary translations in Albanian were much more free.
In these first translations, Noli had reason to give an exact meaning for the original Greek, thus sacrificing the musical setting of the text. It is very difficult in any language to balance the exact translation of the original hymns while keeping the originality of Byzantine chant. But in Noli’s case, his political intention was to induce the Orthodox Church to accept and recognize these books and not to erect obstacles to the movement for the independence of the Albanian Church. With this strategy he hoped that any negative reaction to his translations would be limited.
This was his first series of liturgical publications. Before the work was complete, Noli had made it clear that he would fulfill his promises to his countrymen, giving them the most essential prayers in Albanian, before now dedicating himself to translations of world literature “for which the nation has such a great need.”[12]
The reception of this period’s translations by many Albanian figures, including Faik Bey Konitza, the most prominent intellectual of Albanian letters at that time, was very warm: “The Church book that the Reverend Fan S. Noli will publish soon is only a translation; but what a translation it is! What a strong, coherent, edgy and lively language! Albanian literature would be right to dislike the Church who stole from us a writer gifted from birth, but fortunately, our friend, entering the Church did not leave letters behind.”[13]
After this early literary review on Noli’s Service Book, more than three decades later Konitza will renew his support and admiration towards Fan Noli: “The use of Albanian in Liturgy is one of his [Noli’s] greatest achievements. The day on which he conducted his first Albanian Liturgy is a turning point in the history of the Albanian Renaissance. We cannot forget it and we cannot let others forget it.”[14]
Other intellectuals were also enthusiastic, as we find in their later writings. The most well known Albanian poet Lasgush Poradeci (Llazar Gusho) wrote on how warmly received was Noli’s Service Book by the Albanian Orthodox Community in Romania. The master of Albanian poetics, who had no admiration on Noli’s poetry, rendered mastery to Noli’s liturgical translations.[15]
Also the poet and literary critic, Mitrush Kuteli (Dhimitër Pasko), praised Noli’s first liturgical translations while writing an essay on Noli’s poetry in 1943: “His Eminence Theofan not only created the first instrument which opened the way toward the Church Autocephaly, but he shaped the Albanian terminology for the Orthodox Church. These translations are today, and will be for a long time, the books of the holy services of our Church.”[16]
These words turned out to be very prophetic… In fact, Kuteli’s words are the best on describing Noli’s contribution in the history of the Albanian Church.
The reception of these works had historical importance because they were the first liturgical translations into Albanian, and without those books it was impossible to assert the independence of the Orthodox Albanians from the Greek Church. However, while the Albanian style of Noli’s translations satisfied those who were working for a literary Albanian distanced from Greek linguistic influence, the theological nuances in the texts escaped their attention.
But it were these theological details that troubled some Albanian educated clergymen and Orthodox lay intellectuals. Furthermore the canon was not complete. The first two Albanian Orthodox Statutes (1923 and 1929) expressed concerns rather than approval on Noli’s translations. Both Statutes admitted that there were no other liturgical books in Albanian and delegated the issue to the Synod of Bishops for reviewing the existing translations and taking action “as soon as possible” on translating the Church books that did not exist in Albanian.[17]
© Foti Cici
[1] Edwin E. Jacques, ‘Christian Albania, the Turks and Islamization’, The Albanians – An Ethnic history from Prehistoric Times to the Present, Jefferson 1995, p.284.
[2] Fan Noli, “Kombit Shqiptar” (To Albanian nation), Dielli, March 28, 1908, cited from Fan S. Noli, Vepra 2 (Articles 1905-25), Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë, Tiranë 1987, p. 146-49.
[3] Fan Noli, “Letter to the President of the ‘Bashkimi’ (Unity) association,” February 2nd, 1907, cited from Vepra 6, p. 336 (translated from the original in Albanian).
[4] After his ordination Noli wrote very often that “the Albanian Church in America will be planted later on in Albania.” See, Fan Noli, “Kombit Shqiptar,” Dielli, March 28, 1908.
[5] For the financial problems that Noli was facing during his first two years in America there are references in many of his letters of that time. See “Letter to Thanas Tashko,” Boston, Mass, July 16, 1906, cited from Fan S. Noli, Vepra 6, 1996, p. 341.
[6] Kostandin Nelko Kristoforidhi (1830-1895). Translator and linguist. He was educated in Zosimea Ioanninon, Greece, and Malta. Translated the New Testament and many books of Old Testament in two dialects of Albanian. Kristoforidhi is as well author of children’s works. In addition he wrote Γραμματική της Αλβανικής Γλώσσης and Λεξικό της Αλβανικής Γλώσσης, which is regarded as one of the best dictionaries of the Albanian language until recent times. See: Robert Elsie, Dictionary of Albanian Literature, 1986, p.82.
[7] Aleksandër Xhuvani, “Puna e fjalës mysterion,” Shkrepëtima, March 5 1911. However today there is some tendency to use the word “sakrament” (or as an adjective “sakramental”), instead of “mister,” in the Orthodox terminology, especially on the part of English-educated Albanian theologians.
[8] “Letter to Thanas Tashko,” Boston, Mass, February 9, 1908, cited from Vepra 6, p.344-45.
[9] Ali Baba Qyteza (one of Noli’s aliases), “Detyra e parë” (The first duty), Kombi, August 4, 1906, cited from Vepra 2, p.96-97.
Furthermore, Noli’s psychology when he was reading Nietzsche, in his mid to late 20s, is disclosed in one of his letters to the Albanian activist, and his benefactor, Thanas Tashko, expressing a rare confessional character: “I am able to give courage to myself because I have sky, sun and light in my body. I am a son of God among his chosen sons. My mother told me the same thing. The night before she gave birth to Me, Myself, My Holiness, My Majesty, the Honor of Albania, she saw a terrible dream, as though she was giving birth to five people. When she would say this to me, I would tell her: “Yes, Mother! You gave birth not to five, but to a whole armed battalion.” From “Letter to Thanas Tashko,” Vepra 6, p.350 (Translated from the original Albanian).
[10] Shërbes’ e Javës së Madhe, kethyer nga grecishtja prej Priftit Orthodox Fan S. Noli, Boston, Mass, 1908. Dhimitër Beduli, who briefly commented on Bishop Noli’s liturgical translations in Albanian, does not comment on the Holy Week Book, because he did not have the chance to see it (Dhimër Beduli, Gjuha shqipe në Kishë, p.16).
[11] “Letter to Zef Nosi,” Boston, Mass, June 30, 1908, cited from Vepra 6, p.351.
[12] Librë e Shërbesave të Shënta të Kishës Orthodoxe, kthyer nga gërqishtja prej Priftit Orthodox Fan S. Noli, Boston, Mass, 1909, p.7.
[13] Faik Bey Konitza, Albania, Nr.5, 1908, cited in Efthim Dodona, Noli i Panjohur, p.70 (translated from the original in Albanian).
[14] Faik Konitza, cited in Metropolitan Fan S. Noli, Fiftieth Anniversary of the Albanian Orthodox Church in America, Boston, Mass, 1960, p.142.
[15] “Vepërimi Kombëtar i Shqiptarëve të Rumanisë me Kryqëndër Kolloninë e Bukureshtit,” November 13, 1931, cited from Poradeci’s collected works, Vepra 2, Tiranë, 1999, p.230.
[16] “Poeti Fan S. Noli – Vështrim panoramik,” Mall e Brengë, Tiranë 1943, cited from Fan S. Noli, Albumi, Boston, Mass, 1948, p.12.
[17] Article 13 of 1923 Statute, and article 8 of 1929 Statute.
