Priests Proved Hitler Wrong

"Hitler gave men orders to seize sacred writings from a small Albanian town," a man his 60's told us. "But the priest had other plans for the 6th and 8th century gospel manuscripts."

He pointed to a hole in the ground behind the altar. As I stood in that Orthodox church in Berat, my mind began to wonder thinking about that priest who defied Hitler.

He would have known the stories from centuries earlier. When the Ottoman Turkish empire was at its height, the Sultan sent men as well to take the gospel manuscripts. Priests had risked their lives to hide these writings. Often when it was too dangerous to keep at churches, they were passed from house to house, entrusted to families willing to risk everything to protect them.

Now, under Nazi occupation, history was repeating itself as it often had in Albania.

For centuries, Albania had been a land caught between empires. The Albanian people have mastered the art of survival, at times fighting against armies 10 times their size to protect their homeland and other times adapting to the realities of foreign rule while protecting what was sacred.

Invaded by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans, Albanians have repeatedly faced pressure to assimilate. Yet, despite converting to Islam under Ottoman rule, people retained their language and customs. In some cases, Christian communities endured. Christianity in Albanian traces its roots back to the first century when Paul the Apostle preached in Illyricum (Albania is ancient Illyria).

Perhaps the priest that defied Hitler, aware of the fate that awaited these priceless manuscripts if they fell into German hands, gathered a small group of trusted townspeople and, under the cover of night, hid the ancient texts in places only they would know. Their actions were a testament to Albanian customs of protection. Just as families hid sacred writings during WWII, Albania later sheltered its entire Jewish population during the Holocaust, refusing to hand over a single person despite Nazi pressure.

Similarly, despite relentless searches, the Germans never found the manuscripts.

Years later, these manuscripts were moved to the state archives. Whenever they are brought out for public display, they stand not just as relics of the past but as reminders of the resilience of faith and the quiet heroism of those who chose to preserve the truth at all costs.