Rrok Kolë Mirdita (28 September 1939 – 7 December 2015) was an

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

n prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

who served as the archbishop of Tiranë-Durrës from 1993 to his death in 2015.

Biography

Mirdita was ordained a priest on 2 July 1965, aged 25, and served in ethnic Albanian parishes in

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and Westchester counties of New York. On 25 December 1992, aged 53, he was appointed the archbishop of Tiranë-Durrës and consecrated on 25 April 1993 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

and cardinals

Camillo Ruini Camillo Ruini (; born 19 February 1931) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was made a cardinal in 1991. He served as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference from 1991 to 2007 and as Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome fr ...

and

Jozef Tomko Jozef Tomko (11 March 1924 – 8 August 2022) was a Slovak prelate of the Catholic Church who held positions in the Roman Curia from 1962 until he retired in 2007. He was prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 1985 ...

, along with three other bishops ( Zef Simoni, and Robert Ashta) during the Pope's pastoral visit to Albania. Mirdita was the President of the

Episcopal Conference of Albania The Albanian Bishops' Conference (KISH) ( sq, Konferenca Ipeshkvnore e Shqipërisë; la, Conferentia Episcopalis Albaniæ) is an episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in Albania. The conference is organized by Archbishop Angelo Massafra, A ...

and the Chairman of ''Caritas Albania''. On his initiative St. Paul's Cathedral was built in Tirana. Its triangular architecture, according to the Archbishop's idea, symbolizes the cohabitation of Islam,

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

and

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in Albania. The first

Holy Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass, "the same Christ ...

in the new cathedral was celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano,

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

's Secretary of State, and Archbishop Mirdita on 27 January 2002. The Archbishop's house was built next to the Eastern Orthodox cathedral and on Christmas 1999, Mirdita and the Eastern Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios (Anastas) greeted parishioners together. Rrok Mirdita was an Honorary Citizen of

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

, Albania. He died at Mother Teresa Hospital in Tirana on 7 December 2015.

References

External links

Rrok Mirdita at catholic-hierarchy.org
1939 births 2015 deaths People from Ulcinj Albanians in Montenegro Montenegrin expatriates in the United States Albanian Roman Catholic archbishops Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Albania 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Albania {{albania-bio-stub