On an Albanian spring day, dozens of Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians toil together up a steep, winding slope to St Anthony’s Church — different faiths all hoping for a miracle.
Some of the pilgrims heading up the stony path to the imposing church are barefoot and wedge their feet into cracks in rocks believed to have powers, including protection against disease.
Others collect five white stones along the way and, in accordance with tradition, whisper to each before placing it back on the ground.
Photo: AFP
Ilir, a young Orthodox Christian engineer, rubs his wallet on a rock, hoping for prosperity. “I have come to pray to God for my prayers to be granted this year,” he says.
Catholic mother-of-two Mir is praying St Antony will save her marriage.
“I have problems with my husband,” the young lawyer says.
“I come to ask God to give me a son this year,” says Servete, a Muslim who has traveled to Lac, about 50km north of the capital Tirana, from Durres further west.
On their slow march up the hill, the pilgrims pass a cave where legend says St Antony slept; some leave clothing belonging to their children or sick loved ones needing a cure.
The popular weekly pilgrimage is testament to the survival in Albania of a strong religious faith despite efforts of the 1945 to 1990 communist dictatorship to mercilessly root it out.
Repression and international isolation under the militantly atheistic regime, which banned all forms of religious expression, has today forged an original mix of faith, superstition, folklore and tolerance.
The majority of Albania’s population of almost 3 million is Muslim, but there are strong Orthodox and Catholic minorities too.
The different faiths tend to worship at the same places and people sometimes switch religions for convenience, which might shock some in less tolerant societies.
Here, God is the “same for the Catholics, the Orthodox and the Muslims,” anthropologist Aferdita Onuzi says. “All believe in a miracle that could change their life.”
With the communist dictatorship banning all religious practices in the country, sociologist Artan Fuga says: “Believers who could not practice their faith freely went to look for the divine where they could find it ... also using sacred places or objects from animist and pagan beliefs.”
In an example, thousands of Albanians of all faiths come together each August on Tomorri mountain in the south of the country to honor both a pagan sun cult and the religious practices of an Islamic Sufi order, the Bektashi.
“Common attendance by Muslims and Christians to the places of worship is a widespread phenomenon in Albania,” says Besnik Mustafaj of the non-governmental Forum of Alliance of Civilizations.
Many Albanians “during their eventful history, switched from one religion to another, because of economic necessities or more simply for practical questions,” says Lira Caushi, professor at Tirana’s university.
Albania was Christian when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century and many of its people converted to Islam in order to get jobs in the Ottoman administration.
In an example that persists today, Albanians who want to emigrate to neighboring Greece, an EU member, try to change their identity to prove they belong to Albania’s Greek minority and in the process convert to Orthodox Christianity.
Marriages between Muslims and Christians are frequent and many Albanians are at loss to say which religion they practice.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS