Qerim Sadiku

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]

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

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. Flocchini, Emilia. "Beati Martiri Albanesi (Vincenzo Prennushi e 37 compagni)". Santiebeati. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  3. 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. 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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