www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Mother Teresa. Albanian Or Macedonian ?

It seems to now be a bone of contention between the two ethnic groups.

Here's the story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3139003.stm

"And I think the Polish would be offended if someone claimed that he wasn't Polish."

We all know the Pope is really Ukrainian. LOL
Don :rolleyes:

Is her ethnicity being concealed just as Pope John Paul II's has been concealed (we all know his Mother wasn't Polish). Is this another example of someone having Eastern Christian family roots only later to abondon them for the Roman Church?

Ung-Certez

Shlomo Ung-Certez,
Your post seems to me to be most uncharitable to the Roman Church. The question that has to be asked is that how the Roman Church would benefit from concealing her ethnic background. First off, the vast majority of Albanians are Muslim (see listing below from the CIA Fact Book 2002). Second, Christian Eastern Orthodox out rank Catholics by a two to one margin.

Religions: (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/al.html#People)
Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%

Lastly, we need to look to Mother Teresa's own words in which she said that she was Albanian.

Also as a side point, as someone with a mixed background, I can understand why Mother Teresa, and the Pope, may not stress all of their ethnic heritage. That reason being is that it did not have a major impact on their lives. I myself am 25% Lebanese and 70% Scot, yet when people meet me I say that I am Lebanese since that is the ethnic heritage that I was raised in, and the one that has shaped who I am. That is not to disrespect, or imply shame in my Scottish heritage, but it did not have a major impact on who and what I am.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Friends:

Didn't you know Mother Teresa (soon to be canonized as Sta. Teresa of Calcutta) is "Indian"?

(Paging Mor Ephrem.)

Ergo, she is neither Albanian nor Macedonian: she is Asian! :p


Amado

Friends:

Her unofficial biography says:

To me and, perhaps, to all those outcasts, destitute, and dying in the slums of Calcutta, she was God-sent: an Angel of Mercy!

Amado

I was able to meet and speak with her in 1995 in Newton, Massachusetts. We spoke exclusively in the Albanian language. I was with two Orthodox priests who also spoke with her in Albanian.

So that's that!

With love in Christ,
Andrew

Dear Andrew:

Additional snippets from her unofficial biography:

So, Mother Teresa is ALSO an American of Albanian descent like yourself!

Amado

The problem is complex but it isn't at the same time.

Let's put an example, the State of New Mexico was once Mexican land inhabited by Mexican people, but now it's dominated by the United States and Anglos co-exist with ethnic New Mexicans. So it would not be strange if a person from NM is considered Mexican by me, and American by you.

The situation there is a bit similar. Mother Teresa grew up within Albanian background in Macedonia, and not in a Slavic-Macedonian background. Her family was most likely from North Albania where Latin Rite Catholics form the Christian minority (these migrations were not uncommon in the Ottoman Empire). But she was born in the same Macedonian land inhabited by both Slavs and Albanians.

It's also important to say that ethnic Albanian Orthodox prospered and survived in South Albania (among Tosk Albanian). Byzantine Rite Christians of Greek tradition do not exist among the Northern Gheg (Albanian-Kosovars, Albanian-Macedonians, and North Albanians) because the latin liturgical tradition predominated and the Albanians identified with it while the Slavs did so with the Orthodox tradition. Given these facts, Mother Teresa's family was never Eastern Rite.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that her family was never Eastern Rite/Orthodox Christians. I don't know for certain one way or another, but have various pieces of info to offer.

I know of an Orthodox family with the same surname who is related to her, very distantly. The Bojaxhi clan had its base in Bitolj/Monastir, Macedonia. The Christian Albanians in that area, along with the family that I know, are Orthodox and Tosk.

When I spoke with her, she seemed to speak Tosk, but I won't say that for certain. Usually, as a professional interpreter, I'm keen to notice the dialectical difference, however, I was also awed to be holding the hand of and speaking with this most lovable saint.

I believe that her association with the Roman Catholic youth activities in Skopje may have had something to do with her family tragedy.

Her father successfully built theatres with a partner, but died young. The partner, so the story goes, cheated Gonxhja Bojaxhi's mother out of his share of the business, leaving her peniless and without a dowry for the daughters.

Mother Theresa's sister lived out an impovrished life in Tirana. Mother Theresa petitioned numerous times to visit her sister but was always denied a visa by the communists. They understood well what devastation this simple woman of faith could bring to their Godless system. But Christ is invincible and he ultimately tore it down!

Anyway, I'm not insisting upon the Orthodox link, although I believe that it will be uncovered as time goes on.

With love in Christ,
Andrew

Hi Andrew and all

Yea I remember you told me about Albanian ancient history and how some of those that are now Ultra-Latin Catholic in Kosova and the North, may have been from the Estern Rite in ancient times.

I was also told that in Struga and Bitolj (thing you confirmed) there were Albanian Orthodox Christians of Tosk dialect. Before, I had the idea that most of them were absorbed by the Slavonic-speaking Church. To what jurisdiction do they belong to in modern times? Are they part of the present Macedonian Orthodox Church even in spite of the ethnic strugggles there?

Dear Snoopy:

First, we should remember that there weren't always codified "rites" as we know them know, but perhaps "styles" of worship, some more Western and some more Eastern. Gradually, with the spread of monastic copying and, later, the printing press, things became very standardized.

I think that in those later times, just prior to the 1800s, people really didn't see themselves as Greek, Albanian, or Bulgarian Orthodox. They saw themselves simply as Orthodox. They identified with the languages (Greek, Albanian, or Bulgarian) that they spoke at home, but not these nation-states (since these no longer existed and had been feudal - more or less the personal domains of certain powerful families). I'm not saying that they didn't have a consciousness of their ethnicity, but that it didn't necessarily translate into church and state consciousness.

Everybody in the Balkans could get by in the marketplace with some level of Greek or Slavic. Many knew some Turkish by necessity.

During Turkokratia, to be "Alvanos" meant to be a muslim; people who had been Christian Albanians but had converted to Islam. In effect, traitors to Christ and nation in the eyes of the remaining Christians. So ethnic Albanians who were RC were "Latins" and ethnic Albanians who were OC would be "Rum" or "Greek."

Large parts of what is now southern Albania were under the Patriarch of Ohrid. I think that we find much evidence in that Patriarchate of bilingualism and tension between use of Greek vs. Slavonic. The Albanian population had spread far east, even into Bulgaria, with several villages still claiming "Albanian" ancestry to this day. One of the Bulgarian Patriarchs (Maxim (?) between 1965 and 1975) was of Albanian ancestry and spoke it fluently. Look at the famous town of Arbanassi/Arvanassi and how its iconography, inscribed in Greek, is of the same school as contemporary iconography in Albania.

These groups in (FYR) Macedonia and Greece are much like the Arvaniti in Macedonia (Hellenic Republic) and Greece (again, they don't identify with the term "Albanian" but they do admit that it is the same language that they speak).

So I think that it is fair to say that many Albanian Orthodox Christians were absorbed into the Slavic-speaking Church, but I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'm claiming all of the Macedonian Orthodox as "closet Albanians."

Since the demise of the original non-Hellenic, non-Illyrian, and non-Slavic Macedonians of Phillip's and Alexander's era, Macedonia has been a transition zone between Serbian north, Greek south, Albanian west, and Bulgarian east.

But all of this is far off the subject of blessed Mother Theresa.

In Christ,
Andrew

Indian. End of story.