Nikollë Kaçorri
Nikollë Kaçorri | |
---|---|
Dom Nikollë Kaçorri | |
Born |
Nikollë Kaçorri 1862 Lurë, then Ottoman Empire, now in modern Albania |
Died |
1917 (Aged 55) Vienna, Austria |
Cause of death | cancer |
Nationality | Albanian |
Occupation | Archbishop of Durres, and vice-premier of Albania |
Known for | Religious and political activity |
Term | Vice Prime Minister |
Predecessor | Post established |
Dom Nikollë Kaçorri (1862–1917), was a prominent figure of the National Renaissance of Albania. A signatory of Albanian Declaration of Independence, Dom Kaçorri served as Vice Prime minister of the Provisional Government of Albania, after the independence.[1]
Life
He was born in 1862 in Lurë, (now in Dibër municipality). He trained for the priesthood in Throshan near Lezhë and studied theology in Italy, being ordained as a Catholic priest. On his return to Albania in 1895, he began work as a parish priest in Durrës. In the early years of the twentieth century, Kaçorri was increasingly involved in the nationalist movement, and was one of the organisers of an armed uprising in Kurbin, Krujë and Mirditë in 1905-7. In 1906, as a man of the cloth, he was made protonatary apostolic, and later in life bore the ecclesiasticaltitle of vice general. In 1907, Kaçorri was a member of the nationalist Vllaznia (Brotherhood) society in Durrës and co-founded the Bashkimi (Unity) society in 1909. In November 1908, he took part in the Congress of Manastir, which was held to decide on an Albanian alphabet. In 1910, during an uprising in Kurbin which he was involved, he was arrested by the Ottoman authorities for sedition and was sentenced four years in prison, thought the sentenced was soon reduced to 13 months. In November 1912 he was present at the declaration of Albanian independence in Vlorë., as a Representative of Durrës. There, he was made deputy prime minister in the first provisional government, but resign in March 1913 after marked difference with Ismail Qemali. Kaçorri left Albania at the end of the 1913, and met Prince Wied in Berlin in January 1914. On 28 February 1914, he was in Vienna with an Albanian deputation that was received by the Austrian emperor at Shönnbrünn Palace. He was to spend the rest of his life in Vienna. In April 1917, though increasingly ravage by Cancer, he took part in another Albanian deputation to pay homage to the emperor in Vienna, but died two months later at the Fürth sanatorium. He was buried on 2 June 1917 at the Vienna Central Cemetery. Nikollë kaçorris remains were repatriated from Vienna to Tirana almost a century later, on 9 February 2011.[2]