Noli, Fan

The early years

The ancestors of Noli have long served in military service to the Sultan and were settled in the vicinity of Constantinople, in Thrace. His uncle, who was captured by the Russians and asking for worship, when asked how he, the Orthodox, can serve Muslims, replied: "Religion is a religion, and a profession is a profession."

Fan Noli attended a Greek high school in Edirne . Perhaps in his youth he considered himself rather Greek: his early articles were signed by Theophan Mavromatis. But over time, the young man begins to use the albanized name and surname, going down in history as Fan Noli ^[1] .

In 1900, after a short stay in Constantinople , he settled in Athens, where he managed to earn some money as a copyist , prompter and actor . Traveling with one wandering theater troupe through Greek settlements in the eastern Mediterranean , Noli went to Egypt.

Leaving the troupe in Alexandria, from March 1903 to March 1905 he worked as a teacher of the Greek language , and also served as a singer first in Shibin al-Kom , and from March 1905 to April 1906 in El Fayyum , where a small Albanian colony settled.

He was fluent in 13 foreign languages. He translated into the Albanian language Shakespeare , Cervantes , Omar Khayyam , Fedor Tyutchev , Henry Longfellow , Heinrich Ibsen , Leo Tolstoy , Maxim Gorky . He established relations with the Albanian diaspora and became an ardent supporter of the Albanian nationalist movement.

In the USA

In 1906 he moved to Boston . He edited newspapers and led political organizations.

In 1907, the New England Orthodox Albanian Assembly proclaimed the autonomy of the Albanian Orthodox Church in the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. Fan Noli became her first priest: on February 9, 1908, at the age of 26, Feofan Noli became a deacon in Brooklyn , and on March 8, 1908, became a priest. Both consecrations were performed by the Archbishop of Aleut and North America Plato (Christmas) .

Theophan Noli translated the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom from Greek into Albanian. Along with church service, he conducted active public activities among Albanians in America.

Having become a priest, Noli continues to actively participate in the nationalist movement. In 1912, he founded the All-Albanian Federation “Vatra” (Hearth), which gradually gained influence in the diaspora and Albania.

Due to the fact that the Orthodox Church in Albania was strongly influenced by Greece and opposed the national liberation movement, Noli, together with a group of Albanian nationalists, sought to create an independent Albanian Orthodox Church .

International activities

In the same year, Noli began to study at Harvard University and graduated in 1912 . He returned to Europe to fight for the independence of Albania, which he first visited in 1913 .

During the First World War he returned to the United States, headed the Albanian diaspora. Thanks to his diplomatic efforts, President Woodrow Wilson supported the international recognition of independent Albania (proclaimed in 1912), which was recognized by the League of Nations in 1920 .

In November 1918, the priest Theophan Noli received monastic tonsure and became archimandrite.

In February 1919, the Albanian Orthodox Diocese was established at the Second All-American Church Council in Cleveland as part of the North American Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church, which included the parishes of the states of the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes regions. Archimandrite Theophan Noli was elected her bishop. However, blessings for this consecration of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon could not be obtained because of the impossibility of establishing a relationship with him in the difficult post-revolutionary years.

Albanian politician

In 1921 he became a deputy of the Albanian parliament as a representative of the liberal Vatra party. He briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Jhafer Ypi.

In 1922, the first Albanian Orthodox Cathedral proclaimed the autocephaly of the Albanian Church. By decision of the Provisional Supreme Church Council of the Albanian Orthodox Church, Bishop Christopher of Berat (Kisi) and Melitopol Bishop Hierofei (Yakhotopoulos) November 21, 1923 in the cathedral in the name of the Great Martyr George in Korce consecrated Theophan Noli in Bishop Korchinsky . Noli usually did not wear monastic clothes: in photographs you can see a formal suit with a tie. Theophan Noli was a principled supporter of the complete separation of religion from politics.

After the conservatives killed the liberal politician Avni Rustemi , Noli delivered a fiery speech at his funeral, which led to the uprising and flight of the conservative Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu . Although power was briefly transferred to another conservative, Shefketu Verlaggi , he was soon forced to flee. For a short time, liberal Ilyas Vrioni was prime minister, and on July 17, 1924, Noli was appointed prime minister and regent of the country. The revolutionary government led by Fan Noli issued a declaration of democratic freedoms and a reform program.

Despite attempts to reform the country, the “Zero-Point Program” of Zero was unpopular, and the country found itself in international isolation in a situation where without external assistance it was impossible to solve internal socio-economic problems. Noli found foreign policy support only in the person of the Soviet Union, but as soon as he established diplomatic relations with him, he received protests from Italy, Yugoslavia, France and the UK, and the latter ultimately threatened to overthrow the government with Ahmet Zogu .

The Soviet Plenipotentiary A. A. Krakovetsky had to leave Albania, but this did not save Zero. His government fell as a result of a coup organized on Christmas Day 1924 by a group of Zogu supporters. Zog was supported by the remnants of the White Army , who found refuge in Yugoslavia. Two weeks later, Zogu returned to Albania, and Noli and six other cabinet members escaped by boat to Italy (in their homeland they were sentenced to death in absentia). Opposition leaders Bayram Zurri and Luid Gurakuchi died, many others were repressed. Some supporters of the republican Noli movement subsequently became communists, some became fascists.

Emigration

The first time after the exile, Fan Noli tried to create a united democratic front abroad against the dictatorship of Zogu, who by that time had proclaimed himself king. The “National Revolutionary Committee” was formed in Vienna ( Komiteti Nacional Revolucionar , KONARE; since 1928, the Committee for National Liberation).

Noli established contacts with the USSR, the Comintern and the Communist Balkan Federation . In 1927, Noli spoke at the congress of "Friends of the Soviet Union" in Moscow with an enthusiastic speech. One of the first Albanian communists, Kostandin Bosniak, provided KONARE, the Kosovo National Defense Committee , and expelled opposition members with financial assistance from the USSR.

Theophan Noli wandered around the world for a long time before returning to the United States in 1932 with a reputation as a “dangerous Bolshevik ” and almost an atheist. It came to the point that when Noli was seriously ill and needed money, only one person agreed to pay his hospital bills: King Zog I.

Defeating the disease, Noli, aged 53, enters the Boston Conservatory and successfully completes it. Then in 1945 he received a Ph.D. from Boston University for his dissertation on Skanderbeg, to whom he also devoted rhapsody .

He studied and taught Byzantine music, actively participated in the activities of the Albanian Orthodox Church. He wrote a book about Beethoven. The latter was highly appreciated by Bernard Shaw , saying that “the handwriting of a first-class critic and biographer” is visible in it ^[2] .

In the face of the invasion of fascist Italy, the political opponents Zog and Noli went for a rapprochement, but were unable to form a united front: in 1939, after the occupation of Albania by Italy, Zog proposed Noli to become the prime minister of the government in exile - but Theophanes would refuse ...

After 1944, he established contacts with the regime of Enver Hoxha , established in Albania after being liberated from the Nazis at the end of World War II, convinced the American government to recognize the new regime. However, the Communist government's offer to return was refused, citing the busyness of the affairs of its diocese. A personal invitation to return Noli was sent on August 27, 1945 by his student and former secretary Seifula Maleshova , who at that time was considered an influential member of the new leadership of the country. Among the Albanian communists, Maleshov held a relatively liberal position, so Khoja soon removed him.

Despite distancing himself from the Khoja government, which pursued a firmly anti-religious policy, Noli's previous contacts and left-wing sympathies aroused suspicion among the FBI : the Boston branch of the federals had been tracking the bishop for over a decade.

At a meeting of the mixed Church Council and the Holy Synod of the Albanian Church on October 16 and 17, 1950, the issue of “recognizing the head of the Albanian Orthodox bishopric with a center in Boston Mass [achusets]” was considered and unanimously decided: “To recognize Bishop Fan Noli as head of the diocese in Boston Mass with a territory that includes all religious societies of Orthodox Albanians located in the United States of America. ” Another decision was drawn up for the inclusion of this diocese in the Albanian Orthodox Church ^[3] .

Died March 13, 1965 in Florida at the age of eighty-three.

Albany University in Pristina is named after Noli. The monument to the “red bishop” is erected in a small park in Tirana bearing his name.

• Biography, poetry and portrait
• Noli's liturgical translations into Albanian and English
• Yuri Maximov Bishop Feofan (Zeros)
• Anastasia Mitrofanova Feofan Noli: Bishop and Prime Minister