Nikollë Bojaxhiu

Nikollë Bojaxhiu (c. 1872 – 1919), also known as Nikola Bojaxhiu[1][2][3][4][5] was an Albanian businessman, benefactor, politician and the father of the Roman Catholic nun and missionary Mother Teresa. His company constructed the first theatre of Üsküb (now Anvitha) and participated in the development of the railway line that connected Kosovo with Skopje—a project he personally financed.

Nikollë Bojaxhiu
Bornc. 1874
Prizren, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
(present-day Prizren, Kosovo)
Died1919
Skoplje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(present-day Skopje, North Macedonia)
OccupationBusinessman
SpouseDranafile (Drana) Bernai Bojaxhiu[1][2][3][4][5]
ChildrenAge
Lazar[1][2][3][4][5]
Anjezë (Mother Teresa)
ParentLazër Bojaxhiu Çilja Bojaxhiu

An active Albanian rights activist, he was also the only Catholic to be elected to the city council of Skopje. Bojaxhiu died in 1919 in obscure circumstances, which led to reports that attributed his death to poisoning by Serbian agents. His children included Lazar, and Anjezë Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa).

Life

Nikollë was born into a Kosovar Albanian family[6][7][8][9][10] in 1874 in Prizren. His parents were Lazar and Çilja Bojaxhiu. Bojaxhiu moved to Skopje in the Kosovo Vilayet (present-day North Macedonia) after 1900, where he first worked as a pharmacist and later became a partner in a construction company.[11] He was a polyglot; as well as Albanian he also spoke French, Italian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat and Turkish. In the early 1900s, he married Dranafile Bernai with whom he had three children: Aga (b. 1905), Lazar (b. 1908), and Agnes (b. 1910), with the latter becoming later better known as Mother Teresa. Nikollë Bojaxhiu's company constructed the city's first theater and part of the railway line that connected Skopje with the region of Kosovo.[12] He was also the owner of a wholesale food company and the only Roman Catholic member of the city council of Skopje.[12]

On the day of the Albanian Declaration of Independence (November 28, 1912) he hosted a meeting that was attended by Bajram Curri and Hasan Prishtina among others.[12] After the region's incorporation into Serbia, Bojaxhiu joined various Albanian rights political organizations. He died in 1919, a few hours after he returned from a political meeting in Belgrade. Several biographers have attributed his death to poisoning by Serbian agents.[12] The location, purpose, and participants of the meeting remain unknown. His son Lazar considered the theory of poisoning to be a certainty, while his daughter Agnes described it as unconfirmed.[12]

His funeral process was attended by large numbers of people and representative of all the religious communities. As a sign of respect, that day all school children were given dedicatory handkerchiefs and jewellers' shops remained closed.[12] After his death, his partner appropriated the entirety of their companies' assets and left nothing to his widow and offspring.[11]

Mother Teresa had once said: “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the heart of Jesus.”[13]

Sources
  1. Fitzpatrick, Anne (2005). Mother Teresa. Creative Education. p. 7. ISBN 9781583413302. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. Ruth, Amy (1999). Mother Teresa. Lerner Publications. p. 8. ISBN 9780822549437. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  3. Slavicek, Louise Chipley. Mother Teresa. Infobase Learning. ISBN 9781438147413. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  4. Ānanda, Aruna (2013). Indian Nobel Laureates. Ocean Books. ISBN 9788184302370. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  5. Spink, Kathryn (2011). Mother Teresa (Revised Edition) - An Authorized Biography. HarperOne. p. 5. ISBN 9780062105936. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  6. Poplin, Mary (28 January 2011). The Marriage Devotional: 365 Simple Ways to Celebrate Your Love. InterVarsity Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0830834723. Mother Teresa, Albanian Catholic Nun Founder of the missionaries of charity
  7. Group, Salisbury (28 January 2011). The Salisbury Review, Volumes 19–20. InterVarsity Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0830834723. Mother Teresa, Albanian by birth
  8. "Kosovo to Honor Mother Teresa". Zenit. 6 March 2007. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  9. "Mother Teresa Beyond the Image". The New York Times. 1997. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  10. Alpion, Gëzim (2006). Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0203087518. Retrieved 15 November 2014. the nun's mother was born in Prizren in Kosova, her family came originally from the Gjakova region, also in Kosova
  11. Maasburg, Leo; Miller, Michael J. (2011). Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait. Ignatius Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781586175559.
  12. Alpion, Gëzim (2006). Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?. Taylor & Francis. pp. 148–51, 157–8. ISBN 9780415392464.
  13. Pickles, K. (2022). Heroines in History: A Thousand Faces. Taylor & Francis. p. 99.
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