In Rome (Italy), Father Anton Luli, a catholic priest, passed away. He was born in Lohe, Shkodra, in 1910. In 1924, he started the Pontifical Seminary in Shkodra. In Shkodër and at the Seminary, he taught Italian, Albanian, history and geography. After three years of teaching, one of which in Tirana, the superiors sent him to study theology at the House of Saint Anthony, in Chieri, near Turin, where he was ordained a priest on May 13, 1942. In August 1943, he finally returned to Shkodër. In January 1946, Monsignor Frano Gjini appointed him rector of the Saverian College and the Pontifical Seminary. After their closure, he was appointed as vicar of the parish of Shkreli. He was arrested on December 19, 1947, for agitation and propaganda. While waiting for the judicial process, he was held for eight and a half months in the Koplik prison. In the judicial process that took place in November 1948 in Shkodër, he was sentenced to seven years of forced labor. He served most of his sentence in the labor camp, in Beden of Kavaja. From there, after six years, he was transferred to the Burrel prison, from where he was released on October 20, 1954. He was allowed to serve again, so on May 15, 1955, he was assigned to Shënkoll in Lezha, where he served until December 6, 1966, when it was closed and used as a “culture hall”. For ten months he stayed with his brother, in Lohe, where he worked in cooperative with his fellow villagers. On April 30, 1979, he was arrested for the second time. Awaiting the trial, he was held for nine months in the State Security prison in Shkodër. On November 6, 1979, he was sentenced to death by firing squad; after two days the sentence was commuted to twenty-five years of imprisonment and five years of internment. He began his sentence in the Ballshi camp. After Ballsh, he was transferred to the camp of Shënkoll, in Lezhë, and from there to Përparim of Saranda. He was released on April 15, 1989. He delivered his first mass at the Bushat cemetery on November 25, 1990. (In the photo: Anton Luli)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. V , “West Print”, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2016, page 111-112.
Photo: © https://memorie.al/en/
Graphic processing: AHCF
