Pjetër Mazreku (1584– 27 November 1634) (, ) was an Albanian

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He wrote documents on the state of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and a short 33 word Albanian etymological dictionary, preserved as a manuscript.

Life

Mazreku was born in

Prizren Prizren ( sq-definite, Prizreni, ; sr-cyr, Призрен) is the second List of cities and towns in Kosovo, most populous city and Municipalities of Kosovo, municipality of Kosovo and seat of the eponymous municipality and District of Prizren, ...

, most likely in the village of Mazrek, into an Albanian family from the Mazreku tribe, which spoke in the Gheg dialect of Albanian. He served as the Archbishop of Bar from 1624 to 1634, while in 1631 he became the apostolic visitor of Hungary, Serbia and

Slavonia Slavonia (; ) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria County, Istria, one of the four Regions of Croatia, historical regions of Croatia. Located in the Pannonian Plain and taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with f ...

. In 1634 he was ordained as the

apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. Until his death around 1638 he served as Bishop of Prizren. Mazreku knew many languages, and wrote an etymological dictionary of the Albanian language.

Annotations

His name was spelt in Latin and Italian as Mazzaretus, Massarechio, Maserecho, Masarecho, Masserecco, Massarecius, etc. In Albanian, his name is spelt Pjetër Mazreku.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazreku, Pjeter 17th-century Albanian Roman Catholic bishops 17th-century Italian writers 17th-century Italian male writers 17th-century Albanian writers Albanian Roman Catholic archbishops Archbishops of Antivari People from Prizren Italian-language writers 1584 births 1634 deaths Members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Ottoman Empire