On November 4, 1990, Albania experienced an event that would forever mark the end of an era of fear and the beginning of a national spiritual rebirth. At the Rrmaji Cemetery in Shkodër, among hundreds of believers who had come from all over the country, Father Simon Jubani — the unbreakable priest who had endured 26 years in the prisons of the communist regime — celebrated the first public Mass after more than two decades of total religious prohibition in Albania.
It was a cold November day. The dark sky seemed to carry the weight of decades of oppression, but in the eyes of the people burned a light never seen before — the light of freedom. That Mass was not merely a religious act; it was an act of courage, an explosion of the free Albanian spirit, a historic turning point that heralded the end of dictatorship.
I was present at that Mass. It was the first time I had ever seen a Catholic priest, and for me — as for many others — it felt as if I was seeing a light from another world, one forbidden for decades. There, among hundreds of men, women, the elderly, and the young, I felt for the first time the fragrance of freedom and the power of faith.
The Albanian Catholic Church, rightfully called the martyr of democracy, was reborn from its own ashes. Having endured executions, imprisonments, and the most inhuman tortures, it rose again — wounded, yet alive — to testify that the spirit cannot die.
Father Simon Jubani was not only a priest. He was a national symbol of resistance, dignity, and faith. After a quarter of a century in prison, he emerged without hatred, without a desire for revenge, but with a profound conviction that truth and God cannot be imprisoned. He knew that the day of freedom would come — and it came, in Rrmaj, under the open sky of Shkodër.
When he raised his hands and began the Mass, a shiver ran through the crowd. People wept, embraced one another; some held the red and black flag, others raised their eyes to the sky filled with tears. For the first time in many years, the word God was spoken publicly, and it rang out like a bell awakening the conscience of a wounded nation.
“We are free to believe and to worship our God,” said Father Simon Jubani that day.
He was not preaching only faith — he was preaching freedom. He spoke not only of the salvation of the soul but of the liberation of man from fear, lies, and oppression.
That Mass became an open act of defiance against the dictatorship. Without any political order, without any party flag, without any weapon — only with the power of the spirit. It was a peaceful revolution that began not in the halls of power but in the heart of the people.
I still remember that day with indelible emotion. I remember the face of Father Simon Jubani — calm, radiant, with a gentle smile that concealed decades of suffering. I remember the steam rising from the cold earth, mixed with the aroma of incense and the tears of people greeting God after half a century of silence. It was not merely a Mass — it was the first baptism of Albanian freedom.
In the years that followed, Father Simon Jubani remained the same humble and modest man who preached the truth without compromise, who loved Albania and its people with all his soul. He sought no office, no glory, no reward. He remained the servant of God and of the nation — a voice of reason and conscience in a society still searching for its way toward the light.
Today, more than three decades after that day, the name of Father Simon Jubani stands as a living monument of Albanian freedom. He was the priest who ended the silence, who lit the light of God in the darkness of dictatorship, and who became an inspiration for an entire nation reborn from the ashes of fear.
Those of us who were there are witnesses to a miracle. It was the day when God returned to Albania — and with Him returned honor, hope, and freedom.
Father Simon Jubani will forever remain the Voice of God and Freedom — the priest who dared to proclaim, in the midst of darkness:
“No one can silence the free spirit of man.”
And that voice will forever echo in the conscience of every Albanian who believes in light, in God, and in freedom.
