Visarion Xhuvani, the first chairman of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania (“KOASH”), was born in Elbasan. He completed his secondary and higher theological studies in Athens. In the parliamentary elections of 1921, he was elected as a deputy of the Durrës prefecture and became a member of the parliamentary justice commission. In September 1922, he participated in the First Pan-Orthodox Congress in Berat, where he was proposed as a bishop and was ordained in May 1925. With his initiative, the Holy Synod was formed in February 1929, which elected him as the chairman of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania and the metropolitan of Durrës and Tirana. Visarion Xhuvani consolidated the structure of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, giving it a national hierarchy and physiognomy. He appointed Albanian bishops in the ecclesiastical dioceses of Albania. With his care, a seminary for the training of priests was opened in Durrës, which in 1930 turned into a 4-year seminary. Students were sent to theological universities abroad, and a commission was established for the translation and publication of liturgical books in the Albanian language. To seek support for the recognition of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, Visarion Xhuvani visited the Romanian Church (1932), participated in the World Council of Friendship among Peoples (Sofia, 1933), the Conference of Balkan Churches (Herceg Novi, 1935), the Pan-Orthodox Congress (Montreux, 1935), etc. In 1936, at the request of the Patriarchate, he was relieved of his duties as chairman of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania. In 1942, Visarion Xhuvani was elected metropolitan of Berat. In June 1947, he was arrested and imprisoned by the communist regime. He was released in 1962. In 1965, he was interned at the Monastery of St. John Vladimir in Elbasan. He passed away on December 15, 1965. (In the photo: Visarion Xhuvani)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2961.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visarion_Xhuvani
Graphic processing: AHCF
