Blessed Lazër Shantoja

Lazër Shantoja (7 July 1891 – 5 March 1945) was an Albanian blessed, publicist, poet, satirist, and translator into Albanian from Goethe, Schiller and Leopardi, as well as his country's first Esperantist. He was one of the first Catholic priests, arrested by the communist government, and the first Albanian priest that was shot by a firing squad. He was accepted by the Catholic Church as a martyr in 2016, part of the Martyrs of Albania. Shantoja was born on 7 July 1891 (although some biographers mention also 2 September 1892 as birthday) in Shkodër, Scutari Vilayet, then Ottoman Empire, son of Kel Shantoja and Luçe Blinishti. In his manuscript Shantojana - History of the Shantoja family he writes that his family originates from Vjerdha e Vjetër, a settlement close to Rragam, in the Shkodër County. Shantoja pursued elementary and high school studies at the Albanian Pontifical Seminary in Shkodër, and then, during 1912 - 1914, was in Innsbruck, Austria-Hungary, to pursue university level theological studies. His Austrian professors wrote in his graduation certificate that he was a "very talented" seminarist. In 1914 Shantoja visited for the first time Vienna, and, on 29 May 1915, he was ordained as a priest. He started to write poetry in Albanian, Italian, German and Esperanto, and also began to translate into Albanian. In 1917 Shantoja started to serve as a parish priest in the villages of Pulaj, Beltojë, Velipojë, Rrjoll, as well as Sheldî, where he also opened the village's first school with Albanian as a language of instruction. In 1922 he became the secretary of the Archbishop of Shkodër, Mons. Lazër Mjeda. In that vest, on 17 April 1923, he had the chance to meet in Vienna, with the Chancellor of Austria, Ignaz Seipel.