Rrok Mirdita
Rrok Kolë Mirdita was the Catholic Archbishop of Durrës-Tirana, and the Primate of Albania.Biography
He was ordained a priest on July 2, 1965, aged 25, and served in ethnic Albanian parishes in Bronx and Westchester counties of New York.
On December 25, 1992, aged 53, he was appointed the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tiranë-Durrës and consecrated on April 25, 1993, by Pope John Paul II and Cardinals Camillo Ruini and Jozef Tomko, along with three other bishops during the Pope's pastoral visit to Albania. Mirdita was the President of Albanian Bishops Conference and the Chairman of Caritas Albania.
On his initiative St. Paul's Cathedral was built in Tirana. Its triangular architecture, according to the Archbishop's idea, symbolizes the cohabitation of Islam, Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism in Albania. The first Holy Mass in the new cathedral was celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican's Secretary of State, and Archbishop Mirdita on January 27, 2002. The Archbishop's house was built next to the Orthodox cathedral and at Christmas 1999, Mirdita and the Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios greeted parishioners together. Rrok Mirdita was an Honorary Citizen of Tirana, Albania.
He died at Mother Teresa Hospital in Tirana on 7 December 2015.Photos
*
*
*
