From Apostolic times to 731
Writing from Corinth to the Romans in 55-57 A. D., the Apostle Paul records that he was acting with holy zeal “so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:18-19).http://www.orthodoxalbania.org/English/Brief History/BH Book1bpic.htm By “unto Illyricum,” he probably meant that he included Illyricum, which in the first century A.D. was a province of Macedonia. In the light of his next words -“Yea, so have I striven to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation”- we would be justified in supposing that it was the Apostle Paul, either in person or through his close associates, who first planted the seeds of the Gospel in this geographical region. That he was at Nikopoli, slightly south of present-day Albania, is incontestable (Titus 3:12). So too is the missionary work of his close associate Titus in Dalmatia, a little to the north of present-day Albania (II Timothy4:10). According to an early tradition the Apostle to this region was named Qesari (Kaisar), one of seventy Apostles; and another [source] reconciled the two versions by having Paul elect Qesar (Kaisar) as first Bishop of Dyrrachion (Durrës).
Clearer evidence of the presence of a Church community at Durrës is provided by the witness of Bishop Asti in 98 A.D. The reference in the Orthodox menologion is as follows: “July 6th. Saint Asti, Bishop of Dyrrachion, anointed with honey and stung by bees, ended his life upon the cross.” The day after, July 7th, is the feast in commemoration of Saint Peregrinus and the other saints, all of Latin origin, who died with him -Lucian, Pompey, Hesychius, Papius, Saturninus, and Germanus – when they were drowned in the sea by the Governor of Dyrrachion, Agricola.
Dyrrachion, the Kerkyrean colony of ancient Epidamnos (coming from Corfu), was a main port for the Adriatic. It was the Romans’ gateway to the Balkans connecting along the Ignatian Way Thessaloniki and Constantinople. At this crossroads it was natural that a cosmopolitan Church should spring up in the first Christian centuries. This Church was constantly plagued by invasions, earthquakes and fires, but it never ceased to renew and reorganize itself.
During the time of Diocletian (284-305 A.D.), the area of what is today northern Albania, with Shkodra as the center, constituted a part of the province of Prevalitana. The central region until the river Vjosa, with Durrës as the center, constituted the province of New Epirus (Epirus Nova), and from the area of Vjosa until the Bay of Ambrakia constituted Old Epirus (Epirus Vetus). When the Roman Empire split into East and West upon the death of Theodosios I in 395 A.D., what is now Albania became subject to the Eastern Provinces. Until the time of Constantine the Great, the region had been dependent, politically and ecclesiastically, on Rome. Afterwards, it belonged politically only to Constantinople, while ecclesiastically the old situation did not change, until the year 731 A.D..
The whole of Eastern Illyricum was a self-governed Church under the supreme supervision of Rome, via the Vicariate of Thessaloniki. Of the Vicariate’s nine bishops, the Metropolitan of Dyrrachion ranked fifth. In Heraclius Synekdemos, a sixth-century text, several towns are mentioned by name that belong geographically to Albania today. In New Epirus there are: Dyrrachion, Skampa (Elbasan), Apollonia, Bylis, Amantia, Pulkeriopoli (Berat), Avlona (Vlora), Listra, and Skipon. In Old Epirus there are: Evria, Finiqi, Adrianopoli, Ankiasmos, and Boutrotos (Butrinti). [There are several variants in the names of towns and Sees as given by the sources]. Further south, from 429 A.D. onward, the residency of Drinopoli was located, the seat of which was originally somewhere near Korica of Dropoli; then later (558 A.D.) at Episcopacy. Episcopal residencies often had to move because of military and political events in the region. For example, when the Episcopates of Ankiasmos and Feniqi were destroyed in the attacks by the Gotët of Tolita (552 A.D.), the residency of the Episcopate of Ankiasma moved to Himara and Feniqi moved temporarily into the Monastery of Soronias and later joined the Episcopate of Butrinti.
Historical information about this period is very limited. Additional evidence has come from archaeological findings and – through precious pieces of mosaic – some names of saints and bishops. But these are insufficient for us to reconstruct the complete mosaic of local Church history. Christian tombs found in a portico outside the walls of Butrinti, and probably dating to the second century, are our earliest indication of the presence of a Christian community in what is now Albania. Early Christian basilicas have been discovered in various places. They are mostly from the fifth or sixth century, and their dimensions show that they must have served sizable Christian communities, thus standing as im¬portant witnesses to the flourishing Christianity of this area.
Our region is drenched in the blood of saints. They have included Elefterios, “Bishop of Vlora and Illyricum”, martyred in 120 A.D.; his mother, “Anthia”, Donati, and Therini all martyred at Butrinti in 250 A.D.; Danax (third century); Isauri, Basil, Innocent, Felix, Hermia and Peregrini (in Apollonia, in the third century); Trifon (from Sheqishta in Berat, in 313 A.D.); Donati, Bishop of Evria (in 387 A.D.). The names of a handful of bishops are [also] known from the proceedings of Ecumenical Synods. Eukari, bishop of Dyrrachion and Feliksi “Bishop of the cities of Apollonia and Bylisi,” who participated at the Third Ecumenical Synod (in Ephesus 431 A.D.); Luke of Durrës, Eusebi of “Apollonia of the New Epirios”, “Peter of Ekineu” and the series of bishops of New Epirus, Luke, Pelegrinin of Finiqi, and Klaudin (or Kladeo) of Ankiasma, who took part in the Fourth Ecumenical Synod (In Chalcedon, 451 A.D.); Sisini of Durrës, in the Synod V-VI (Penthext or Quinisext) “under the cupola” in Constantinople in 691/692 A.D.). There are also other bishops mentioned: Hipati, at the local Synod of Epirus in 516 A.D.; Eftihi (or Efstohi) in 449-451 A.D., and Constantine (523-529 A.D.); Valeriani,Bishop of Finiqi during the reign of the Emperor Leo Philip (516 A.D.) and Eustathios (586 A.D.).
