Pal Dodaj (3 September 1880 – 5 February 1951) was an

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

, teacher, translator and philosoph from

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

Biography

He was born in

Janjevo Janjevo () or Janjevë (in Albanian) is a village or small town in the Lipjan municipality in eastern Kosovo. The settlement has a long history, having been mentioned for the first time in 1303 as a Catholic parish. The town was prior to the Ko ...

, in the Vilayet of Kosovo, baptized with the name Kolë, as the son of Mash and Prenda Paliq. He went to Shkodër as a child to be educated by the Franciscan Fathers. He began his studies at the College of Troshan, while he completed his novitiate and philosophical and theological studies in Florence, Italy. There, on July 19, 1902, he celebrated his First Mass, to immediately return to his homeland. He began his work as a professor of philosophy first in Troshan and then at the "Illyricum" College in Shkodër as a professor of Canon Law and Morals. In the hierarchy of the Order, he was also appointed as Guardian and later, the first Albanian provincial superior of the Albanian Franciscan Province. He turned the Franciscan Assembly of Rubik into a shelter of protection for the persecuted. It is said that one of the refugees was Ahmet Bey Zogolli in his youth. He was arrested by the authorities of the communist regime on November 8, 1946 and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he later died in prison.

Works

He published in the magazine Hylli i Dritës and in many other foreign ones. He was a regular contributor to the Vatican newspaper

L'Osservatore Romano ''L'Osservatore Romano'' is the daily newspaper of Vatican City which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not an official publication, a role ...

. Also about the situation at that time, there is an exchange of more than 200 letters with

Gjergj Fishta Gjergj Fishta (; 23 October 187130 December 1940) was an Albanian Franciscan friar, poet, educator, rilindas, politician, translator and writer. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century, particularly ...

, where a multitude of topics are discussed. His main work that he left is his personal diary, parts of which were also published in the temporary Hylli i Dritës after the '90s. The diary is handwritten in Italian and a little Albanian. It is kept in notebooks and notebooks of various formats, starting in 1907 and ending in 1943. In 1941, in collaboration with Zef Skiroi, he translated the

Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the Ottoman sultan between 1520 and his death in 1566. Under his adminis ...

, which was published by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Rome in 1941. Malaj V., Apostolic and educational work of the Francisacan Order among the Albanian people, Buletini Katolik Shqiptar, red. Gjon Sinishta,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

1990. fq. 35-37.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodaj, Pal 1880 births 1952 deaths Albanian Franciscans People from Lipjan Kosovan Roman Catholics 20th-century Albanian scientists 20th-century Albanian Roman Catholic priests