Father Pjetër Meshkalla, the clergyman persecuted by the communist regime

On 25 September 1901, Father Pjetër Meshkalla was born in Shkodër.

After completing his theological studies in Austria and Slovenia, as well as the Faculty of Philosophy in Naples, he began teaching at the Pontifical Seminary in Shkodër. He founded the Don Bosko and Shën Pjetri circles, which became important centres for the education of young people of the time.

Meshkalla sided with no occupying power, whether it came from the West or the East. Under fascist Italy, he expressed his patriotic views without hesitation through public sermons and numerous writings. During the Nazi occupation, he helped shelter the population of Tirana and many Jews, amid reprisals and bombings.

In communist Albania he could not escape the blacklist of enemies of the people. In 1947, Father Pjetër Meshkalla was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1967 he was sentenced to 10 more years, and in 1978 he was interned in Vlorë.

He had the courage to write a memorandum to the dictator Enver Hoxha, in which he underlined the persecution of the clergy and the Catholic population. This distinguished symbol of martyrdom died on 28 July 1988.

The Jesuits, the order to which he belonged, have named a high school in Shkodër after him, which continues the tradition of the famous Saverian College.