March 16th, 2018

Ordained in 1958, Father Simon Jubani was arrested in 1963, while at the Abbey of Mirëdita. A political prisoner, he was in Burrel Prison for 26 years, in a 12-by-24 cell with 30 cellmates, tortured and forced to labor in the mines.

With other Catholic priests, he was released on April 13, 1989, and he wrote a memoir "Burgjet e mia," about his horrific time in prison.
Dictator Enver Hoxha had outlawed religion, in 1967, and declared Albania the world's first atheist State, and on November 11, 1990, Father Simon Jubani was the first priest to openly celebrate a public Mass.
VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET!