Written by Fahri Xharra. Saxed from https://telegrafi.com/en/the-plague-of-1747/.
(From the diary of Gjon Nikolle Kazazi)
We are in Gjakova in 1747, it was the month of March, a beautiful March, but one that foreshadowed something terrible. “The frequent movements of the Turkish army that were made during those days and nights from Gjakova, straight from Kafa e Prushi had caught everyone’s attention, but they all had drones for any evil that could be prepared.
It was certain that the High Gate had deliberately chosen the area of Gjakova, its Highlands, Shkodra and all the way to the sea to show its intentions and create a “buffer zone” of terror, because East and West had always broken there the presentation of their power”… said Gjon Nikollë Kazazi in his notebooks of that time, which Jusuf Buxhovi revealed to us in 1982.
“… Be afraid, brother, that the disaster of the border separating the two worlds will fall on us again… O Lord, don’t let me lose patience and courage in times of great and extraordinary trials, and above all don’t let I will lose my balance…” Father John Nikollë Kazazi (1702-1752) of Gjakova said to himself in his notes. “With deep regret” – said Kajmekami of Gjakova, I am informed that the dangerous disease of plague has broken out in Gjakova.
It was on March 28, 1747… The most common form from Xenopsylla cheopsis of the plague, comes after a bite of a rat louse. It first attacks and destroys rats, and by suffocating them, it continues to man. After a one-week incubation, the disease appears violently and sows death. This is the bubonic plague. …And the city of Gjakova, from Pashtriku, to the interior of the Drini, from Nënskëlzen to Lumbardhi i Deçan, was declared a quarantine.
Gjon Nikollë Kazazi did not want to be burdened, as he said, with the sin of unwanted suspicion, but time will tell and it can be said that this evil did not fall from the sky. “War does not choose means. In the mountainous regions, writes Jusuf Buxhovi (Notes of Gjon Nikollë Kazazi), it can also be done by means of an undesirable microbe that kills thousands of times more than a weapon and leaves no trace. The human mind has no end when it comes to destruction”.
Gjon Nikollë Kazazi had read that the plague a hundred years ago also in Gjakovë had not given the expected results thanks to the discovery of the locals. “… I, Gjon Nikollë Kazazi, the son of Pjetri, testify about the blackness that has fallen on our heads and the danger of remaining cut off from the world… This dance is related to the appearance of the plague that is said to be among us, even though it still it has not been proven…(the expected incubation continues F.Xh.)…but much that is related to the disease here, leaves us to doubt that it is the product of the slave’s wickedness….”.
So the disease had been brought to Castile from the distant lands of the East with sick people, accompanied by those who spread the disease. This was part of a dangerous game played with certain goals by the offices that dealt with the destruction or displacement of peoples, where the border between the two worlds fell. A similar thing happened in Gjakova (1972), when Gjakova was quarantined due to smallpox (variola vera), the last outbreak of this disease in Europe. According to the Yugoslav press of the time, the disease was brought by an Albanian Muslim pilgrim.
“A miracle, for faith – said the people, a great miracle. There is talk and gossip about this black disease and nowhere is it investigated”… At the same time, Kajmekami was threatened: “Those who suspect the disease are enemies of the Empire and all those who open the word that there is no disease are mercilessly punished” (? ) I waited impatiently and meticulously planned for the disease to appear.
“The Ottomans, since they failed to create the ‘new man’ on this side, who would be of the future and as such would have no thoughts of his own, would have no past, with an inexhaustible energy a day his behavior should not appear as part of action and thinking according to orders” (J. Buxhovi, ibid.). The plague was the result of strategy: “After all, there have been and always will be diseases, why should we pay attention to them when they come from the great one who thinks about everything?” Kajmekami reassured the Gjakova priest in March of 1747.
“But the right time passed and the disease appeared, the disease did not come from the master, but from the slave, the disease appeared according to the foreseen order and they knew well its course ” – continues Gjon Nikollë Kazazi in his notes. Then Gjakova would become the largest grave in the world where tens of thousands of death row inmates would be buried.
Citizens were surprised that the disease appeared in a selective manner in the city’s suburbs. Was there a trick there too?… The disease spread on and off, thanks to the discovery of the quiet countermeasure, which actually contained the fiercest opposition, not with military infrastructure, but with disregard for the conqueror’s orders. The tradition of the old women from the Highlands who used the mucus extracted from the nose of the sick person, who then, by scratching the skin of the hand and rubbing it with the blood that appears, introduced the anti-microbe into the sick person’s body and thus became resistant to the disease.
The sick people were scattered in the towns of Malësi and Reka and everywhere they had eaten the sick. “The invaders knew well that in addition to the denationalization, assimilation and extermination of the non-listening peoples, they would also affect the nerve centers where their intellect was destroyed and cause mental and spiritual disorders that are passed on from generation to generation…” (Jusuf Buxhovi, Notes of Gjon Nikollë Kazazi, 1982 ). “Yesterday’s events happened tomorrow…”.
Monsignor Gjon Nikollë Kazazi was born in Gjakovë, on January 1, 1702. He received his first lessons in his hometown, while he began his theological studies at the Illyrian College of St. Peter, continued at the College of St. Paul in Fermo and finished at the Illyrian College of Loreto. where he studied grammar, rhetoric and philosophy. He started his studies when he was a young man, 18 years old; he completed them in 1727, when he also received the title of doctor in philosophy and theology.
That same year he was ordained a priest. At the age of 41, he would be ordained bishop of Skopje. As soon as he returned, archbishop Mikel Suma appointed him a missionary in Prizren. Then he moved from Prizren to Gjakovë, for pastoral service, which he performed together with dom Anton Teodori.
Since he was distinguished for his intelligence and special abilities, Monsignor Suma appointed Dom Gjoni vicar general. With the proposal of Monsignor Vincenc Zmajevic, Kazazi was appointed apostolic visitor of the archbishopric of Sofia and the bishopric of Nikopol, in Bulgaria. On September 23, 1743, Pope Benedict XIV appointed Monsignor Gjon Nikollë Kazazi Archbishop of Skopje.
He received Palio in Rome, on December 16, 1743. During his stay in Rome, in 1743, Monsignor Kazazi discovered in the Fide Propaganda Library the only exemplar preserved to this day of ‘Meshar’ by dom Gjon Buzuku, published in 1555. The Archbishop of Skopje died on August 5, 1752, leaving an indelible mark in our history and as the first discoverer of the oldest printed book known to this day. According to all possibilities, his grave is located in the vicinity of Gjakova.
Reference
Balkan Academia 