Blessed

Qerim Sadiku
Martyr
Born(1919-02-12)12 February 1919
Vusanje, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (today Montenegro)
Died4 March 1946(1946-03-04) (aged 27)
Shkodër, Albania
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified5 November 2016, Saint Stephen's Cathedral, Shkodër, Albania by Cardinal Angelo Amato
Feast5 March

Qerim Sadiku (12 February 1919 – 4 March 1946) was a Catholic Albanian blessed who had converted from Islam. He was executed by a firing squad in Shkodër along with clerics Danjel Dajani, Giovanni Fausti, Gjon Shllaku, Mark Çuni and Gjelosh Lulashi.[1] He was accepted as a martyr by the Catholic Church in 2016, part of the Martyrs of Albania.[2]

Life

Sadiku was born in Vusanje, Montenegro, then Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on 12 February 1919 and was baptized as a Catholic. He married a Catholic woman, Marije Vata, in September 1944. Sadiku was an anticommunist, an Albanian nationalist and had been a lieutenant in the gendarmerie force under Zog I of Albania.[3] During World War II he owned a shop in the Gjuhadol neighbourhood in Shkodër and did not become involved with politics until the end of the war.[4]

Although he had a Muslim name, he was a Catholic, and extremely devoted to attending church functions. In church he would stay mostly in a praying position, on his knees, rather than standing. He is also remembered for going often on pilgrimages with his wife to the St Anthony Church, a holy place in Albania.[5]

Sadiku was arrested and imprisoned in Shkodër on 3 December 1945, on the accusations of not going to vote, distributing flyers for other people to abstain from voting, and for being a member of the Albanian Union, an organisation that was considered by the communists to be "fascist".[6] On 22 February 1946, after the trial of the members of the Albanian Union he was sentenced to death.[7]

Sadiku was shot, at age 27, in the morning of 4 March 1946 at the Catholic Cemetery of Rrmaji in Shkodër by a firing squad of eight soldiers of the Albanian communist dictatorship government, along with clerics Danjel Dajani, Giovanni Fausti, Gjon Shllaku, Mark Çuni, and Gjelosh Lulashi.[8] His last words were "I forgive those who may have hurt me. I forgive those who have sentenced me, as well as my executioners. Long live Christ our King. Long live Albania!"[9][10] For the entire day, the bodies were left outside to terrorise the population. The following night, a mass grave was dug near the river bed, where the bodies were buried and covered with rubbish bins, in order to conceal the traces of the execution.[7] Sadiku's child was born to Marije six months after he was killed.[3]

In 2016, Sadiku was accepted by the Catholic Church as a blessed, part of the Martyrs of Albania. The beatification ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato at the Shkodër Cathedral, Albania.[2]

References

  1. ^ Kisha Katolike Qerim Sadiku (19 October 2015). "Martiret e Komunizmit". Kisha katolike Shkoder. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b Flocchini, Emilia. "Beati Martiri Albanesi (Vincenzo Prennushi e 37 compagni)". Santiebeati. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  3. ^ a b Pjetër Pepa (2003). The criminal file of Albania's communist dictator. Uegen. p. 59. ISBN 9789992754276.
  4. ^ Di Pinto, 206
  5. ^ Di Pinto, 395
  6. ^ Di Pinto, 400
  7. ^ a b Owen Pearson (2004). Albania in the Twentieth Century, A History. Vol. III: Albania as Dictatorship and Democracy, 1945–99. I.B.Tauris. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-84511-105-2.
  8. ^ Ahmet Bushati (2001). Në gjurmët e nji ditari: shkodra në tri vitet e saj të parë nen komunizëm në sigurim ndër burgje e kampe. Camaj-Pipa. p. 99. ISBN 9789992741115.
  9. ^ Di Pinto, 402
  10. ^ Pjetër Pepa (2003). The criminal file of Albania's communist dictator. Uegen. p. 78. ISBN 9789992754276.

Sources

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