On June 17, 2018, Third Sunday of Matthew (Lamp of the Body) the Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Resurrection of Christ Cathedral in Tirana by the Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, His Beatitude Anastasios, the Metropolitan of Amantia, His Grace Nathanail, Bishop Asti of Bylis and other clergy.
In the end, Archbishop Anastasios performed a Memorial Service on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the repose of His Beatitude Kristofor Kisi, the first canonical archbishop of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania. His Beatitude Anastasios spoke of the figure and work of this prominent personality of Orthodoxy in Albania.
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Short Biography of His Beatitude Kristofor Kisi:
Archbishop Kristofor was born in the Kala neighborhood of Berati in 1890. Being devoted to spiritual life, he focused on religious studies which he conducted at the Halki Theological School in Constantinople in 1908. He then returned to Constantinople and in 1916 he was ordained to priesthood. Later he was ordained bishop of Sinada, a position that he held until 1923, when he returned to Albania. At first, he was head of the Episcopate of Berat.
In 1929, he withdrew to a monastery in order to avoid being part of the anticanonical actions being carried out at that time. On April 12, 1937, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople proclaimed the recognition of Autocephaly and on the same day, the Patriarchal Tomos was delivered to His Beatitude Kristofor Kisi since he was the first canonical archbishop of our Church.
His Beatitude Kristofor Kisi made a great contribution to the preservation and development of Orthodoxy in our country. Right after the liberation, the communist regime unlawfully removed him from the leadership of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania because they could not handle his authority in the Orthodox Community and consequently isolated him in the church of Saint Prokop. He stayed there until he died in suspicious circumstances, on June 17, 1958.
