During the tragic period between 1945 and 1949, Archbishop Vincenz
Prendushi of Durres, Father Anton Harapi, the Franciscan Provincial, Ethem
Haxhiademi of Elbasan, Father Bernardin Palaj, and Reverend Lazer Shantoja
disappeared from the Albanian cultural scene. These men represented the
leading intellectuals and seminal thinkers in the field of Albanian culture
and literature. Their scholarly efforts and literary endeavors were suddenly
ended by the Albanian Communist government.
I enjoyed the friendship of Reverend Lazer Shantoja for many years. I
came to know of his great literary aspirations. At La Motte in Switzerland
in the 1930s, Father Shantoja revealed his oft-delayed plans for a major
literary work. He wished to preserve Albanian's ancient culture and
traditions which, after being sifted with western civilization, continued in
a transparent modern form. Years earlier the great Albanian poet, Father
Gjergj Fishta, O.F.M. (1871-1940), had sung of the heroic struggles of his
people against all efforts by their enemies to break the ethnic solidarity of
the nation. Shantoja wanted to develop Fishta's theme but in a much larger
fresco. He firmly believed that a national domestic life centered upon
all-but-forgotten virtues could flourish but only if built around those
hearths where the flames symbolized the cult of liberty based on belief in
God. Only in that setting could the conviction be found that "honor is for
life a more necessary nourishing light than the sun itself." Shantoja
reluctantly spoke of this work for the plans were still in gestation. With a
great deal of reticence, he revealed that he needed to renew contact with the
soil, the people, and the atmosphere of his fatherland. In this regard, he
always spoke in such playful and nostalgic phrases as: "I need to eat
cornbread with goat cheese, that cheese which preserves the flavor of the
foilage of our beech grooves upon which the goats feed."
With Shantoja, in the La Motte parish home near the Franco-Swiss border,
lived the priest's elderly mother. She was a native of Shkodra. Although
uneducated, she overflowed with rich human experiences. Not knowing a word
of French, she was continually afflicted with an incurable homesickness. She
immersed herself day and night in remembering the lost homeland, events of
far away Shkodra, relatives and acquaintances and speaking of faded memories
of the past. She spoke the native tongue of Shkodra perfectly. Her nuanced
language sparkled with colorful phrases, and was always spoken with the
distinctive intonations characteristic of Albanian women of every social
class. The poet-son was greatly indebted to her for influencing his style of
expression. Elements of his mother's talents for expression run throughout
Shantoja's works. It was a priceless dowry from a mother to her son.
The Early Years
Lazer Shantoja was born in Shkodra in 1892. During his boyhood, he was
steered towards a religious vocation by his priest uncle. In the Jesuit-run
Pontifical Seminary at Shkodra, he received a solid cultural preparation and
studied Greek, Latin and Italian languages. Shantoja distinguished himself
in the language courses. In his early adolescence he came under the
influence of the literary movement which appeared on the wake of the early
Albanian Cultural revival. His distinguished Albanian Jesuit
teachers--Fathers Ndre Mjeda, Anton Zanoni and Mark Bazhdari--served as his
role models. For Philosophy and Theology studies he was sent to Innsbruck,
Austria. There he learned to read, write, and speak the German language
fluently.
Following ordination in 1920, Shantoja was placed in charge of several
mountain parishes near Sheldija. This prosperous and pleasant region was not
too far distant from Shkodra. I often heard about the learned young pastor
who had transported a piano by mule-back over the difficult mountain paths to
Sheldija. Almost everyone in the region called him the "pastor with
the piano."
In 1924, Archbishop Lazer Mjeda, the brother of the Jesuit poet Father
Ndre Mjeda, came from Skopje to fill the vacant See of Shkodra. The new
Archbishop was a strong-willed man of high moral stature and exceptional
political foresight. Mjeda's energy was undaunted. He quickly undertook
enlightened and efficient measures to raise the social status and civil power
of the Catholic population. He gave his support to the political activity of
Luigj Gurakuqi, the Catholic founder and leader of the Christian-Democrat
party. A majority of the Moslem population soon allied itself with this
party. Archbishop Mjeda promoted the cultural initiative of the citizenry by
appointing Shantoja his personal secretary. The poet arrived in Shkodra with
his books and his piano. Afterwards in the evenings, piano concert music was
played in the Archbishop's palace. The musical notes from Schumann and
Schubert's works would pour down from the upper windows over the esplanade of
the Cathedral and drift into the main thoroughfare. Citizens gathered
nightly for the impromptu concerts. Awed passers-by would often gaze in
admiration towards the palace window.
In 1923, an official Christian-Democrat party newspaper, ORA E MALEVE,
(Defence of the Mountains) began publication. Shortly afterwards, the
Archbishop assigned Shantoja to "actively participate" in its compilation.
The newspaper enjoyed immediate and extraordinary success. The widely
circulated newspaper disseminated democratic ideas throughout an Albanian
society that was still imprisoned by anachronistic, medieval concepts.
Shantoja thrust himself into political competition with all the ardor of
his capricious temperament. He demonstrated more of the spirit and style of
an artist than the passion of a party member. It was precisely this artistic
temperament that exploded in brilliant, polemic cues which struck the
readers, enthused friends, and irritated his foes. Filled with a joy of
expression, he caught in his aim every target. Shantoja's newspaper work
quickly gained him recognition as a writer. His short prose paragraphs and
his scratching, corrosive, satiric verses were written in a piercing style
and popular vein. They were received with avid interest by the readership.
Producing these emotion-filled works amused him tremendously. His articles
of social and political criticism revealed Shantoja's underlying intent to
regenerate the spirit of his people. With the fervor of a true believer and
with an unshakeable will, he set out to utilize his learning to fulfill his
duty towards his country. Shantoja dedicated every line of his works to the
spiritual elevation of the Albanian people.
Unfortunately, the Albanian people in the 1920s and 1930s had not yet
reached a level of political maturity necessary either for understanding or
sustaining the improvements suggested to them in the works of the
innovators. Most Albanians failed to heed the call for better methods of
government and the achievement of higher social levels.
The Exile Period
When the government of Bishop Fan Noli collapsed in 1924, hostile,
anti-intellectuals filled the political vacuum with the help of foreign
mercenaries. Shantoja joined hundreds of other literati and intellectuals in
exile. He lived in Yugoslavia for a few years, then moved to Vienna before
finally arriving in Berne, Switzerland. He obtained a position as a German
speaking chaplain in a Berne Catholic church. Later he moved on to serve as
the chaplain at La Motte where he gained fame for his sermons in French.
No impulse of hatred drove Shantoja to participate in political
activities in Albania. His writings betrayed great depths of innate
ingenuity. They contained fervent emotions and patriotic thoughts endowed
with the freshness and idealism of everlasting adolescence. Shantoja's
works, even those considered the most mendacious, provoked admiration from
his foes because of the sincerity and loyalty with which they were inspired,
and because the bitterness of Shantoja's irony was always lightened by the
stirring elegance of his form.
Shantoja's rare artistic sensitivity was supported by his solid cultural
background, his knowledge of the major European languages and the mastery of
his own native tongue. The poet remained open to the most varied
manifestations of life and always demonstrated a love for people, music, and
sports. Shantoja frequently climbed mountains in Albania, Austria and
Switzerland with only a knapsack on his shoulders and an alpenstock in hand.
It seemed that he was destined to leave a "mega work" revealing his creative
genius, but unfortunately he never did. His memory is preserved only in some
brief yet splendid prose, and in a few lofty lyric poems.
After spending 15 years in exile, Shantoja needed the inspiring breath
of his homeland and renewed contact with his countrymen in order to create.
While awaiting permission to return to Albania he translated the writings of
Goethe, Schiller and various Italian poets. Meanwhile he wrote newspaper
articles and poetry that appeared in the newspapers owned by fellow exiles.
Throughout the final years of exile, there always remained stifled within him
the desire to set about the work which would undoubtedly have affirmed his
artistic genius and gained him world-wide recognition as a literary scholar.
Return to the Homeland
Finally, Shantoja was allowed to return to Albania in 1940.
During this confused, troubled and anxious political period, events
took him by storm. He settled down with his mother in a small house in
Tirane where he intended to work peacefully with his books and notes.
However, in 1944 he was arrested, thrown into a terrible prison, and
tortured. After his captors broke his forearm and leg bones, he "walked" by
supporting himself on his elbows and knees. When his mother was allowed to
visit him, she saw him reduced to such a state that she begged the jailers to
"Kill him. Do him this charity! Don't let him suffer like this!"
Many people wonder why the communists harassed the priest poet in such
an atrocious manner. After his return to Albania, he avoided political
involvement. In fact, he conscientiously avoided all political currents
agitating the country in 1941-1943.
Death of the Priest Poet
The only explanation for the barbarous treatment afforded Shantoja was
that the Albanian communists were anti-western and anti-Christian. They
hated the priest for upholding sane native traditions and for promoting the
regenerative essence of "pure" western civilization, mixed with the truths of
Christianity. The cultural enamel of western civilization, which sparkled in
his prose and lyrics, irritated and frightened the communists. They saw him
as an anti-communist instrument which could easily penetrate young hearts.
Many youths enjoyed and adhered to Shantoja's style. It was nurtured in
substance with ethnic juices, but expressed in a very modern key in which
suffering and humor harmonized elegantly. He knew how to express in words
the typically sarcastic vein of the Albanian race marked with western humor.
His few but exemplary works placed him in the mainstream of Albanian
literature, next to the most refined Albanian stylist Faik Konitza
(1875-1942).
The unspeakable cruelties endured by Shantoja reduced him to a state
near death. Finally a communist woman soldier delivered the coup de grace by
shooting him in the neck. His body was buried along with the octogenarian
Moslem patrician Sulcio Bey Bushati in an unmarked tomb in an unknown place.
Sulcio Bey Bushati had represented the whole of the noble Albanian
traditions. He was a descendant of the house of princes that ruled northern
Albania semi-independently of the "Sublime Porte" of Constantinopole. In
burying the pious priest and Moslem nobleman together, the Communist deniers
of God and of the homeland deluded themselves into believing they had thrust
into oblivion a root of Albanian traditions and its revitalized offshoot.
A FORBIDDEN SONG
-- by Rev. Lazer Shantoja
Reverend Lazer Shantoja had pseudonomously written and published a chain
of sonnets dedicated to a young woman from Shkodra. The author's identity
was soon discovered and some pious Catholics were scandalized. Nevertheless,
the moral character of Shantoja, a confessed Christian Martyr, remains beyond
reproach.
Sensitive both to beauty and to those marvelous gifts lavished by God
upon mortals, the poet could not remain indifferent towards the female
presence nor to the painful feelings endured by his beautiful admirer. These
verses express the tumult of emotions that follow from the renouncement of
romantic love for a woman. Shantoja poignantly affirmed that only in Heaven
could he be free from his religious vows and be enabled to realize perfect
emotional expression and fulfillment.
Reverend Shantoja's sonnets renounced any form of earthly love; yet they
rank among the most beautiful of Albanian poems ever dedicated to a woman.
No, do not ask these verses of me.
Destiny forbids. Though you intoxicate
this poet, still his lips must close.
His heart's song changes to a lament.
The lyre with which I wished to gain you honor
I lay down. It cannot thrill with joy
if you may not be goal to my desires
but an abstract goddess only and a Muse.
Flower for others then. I, keeping my life from
love, will pass my days, unique among poets,
remembering the kiss you gave me.
In my exile the hymn of joy I raised
to Aphrodite will come down
out of the shadow of sad cypresses.
Translated from E.Koliqi's ANTOLOGIA DELLA LIRICA ALBANESE, Milano, 1963, by Prof. J. Torrens, S.J.
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LAZER SHANTOJA (1892-1945)