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Christianity in Albania 

Christianity first came to the area when Saint Paul and some of his followers traveled in the Balkans passing through Thracian and Greek and Albanian populated areas. He spread Christianity to the people of Beroia, Epirus, Thessaloniki, Athens, Corinth and Durrës (Dyrrachium). 

Paul went through the Roman Province of Macedonia (Present day Albania) into Achaea and made ready to continue on to Syria, but he changed his plans and traveled back through Macedonia because of Jews who had made a plot against him. At this time (56–57), it is likely that Paul visited Corinth for three months.[18] In Romans 15:19 Paul wrote that he visited Illyricum, but he may have meant what would now be called Illyria Graeca,[71] which lay in the northern part of modern Albania, but was at that time a division of the Roman province of Macedonia.[72]

Farlati3, the Catholic historian, claimed that the church of Durrës was the most ancient in Albania, having been founded by the apostle Paul while preaching in Illyria and Epirus.  He wrote that in 58 AD there were seventy Christian families at Durrës having for bishop one Caesar or Apollonius. 

Lavardint4, writing about the antiquities of Dukagjini in the mountainous northern part of Albania, mentioned that "In the interior of this region can be seen monuments of marble, on which can still (1576) be read the names of many emperors, Romans and others, and among these, certain remarks or testimonies by which it is evident that St. Paul the apostle preached the Law of the Son of God to the people".  

The Christian gospel may have also reached Albania through the Illyrian soldiers who predominated in the famous Praetorian Guard. These men were housed in their barracks called the "Praetorium", and were responsible for guarding the palaces of the Roman emperors and governors.

These imperial guards had two excellent opportunities to become acquainted with the new Christian religion.

First, when the Roman provincial governor Pilate turned Jesus Christ over to the soldiers for crucifixion, they "led him away into the hall called Praetorium, and called together the whole band" (Mark 15:16).  The brutal soldiery mocked, abused and finally crucified their captive.  And it was one of them who at Christ's death finally expressed what others of their number must have concluded by then: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (Mark 15:39)


Some years later the apostle Paul certainly evangelised the Praetorian guardsmen.  In 64 AD, during his imprisonment at Rome, the apostle wrote that his "bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace" (literally "in all the Praetorium"), and added that his imprisonment had resulted in "the furtherance of the gospel" (Philippians 1:12-13).

Undoubtedly his two years of imprisonment and Christian witness to the rotating Illyrian guardsmen would have brought conversions among them, as it did among the servants of "Caesar's household" (Philippians 4:22).

Thereafter the Christian faith would have reached their families and friends in Albania when they returned home on furlough.