Summary:

During the Crimean War (1853–1856), a contingent of Catholic Albanians from the Mirdita tribe fought as irregular troops under Ottoman command during the siege of Silistria (1854), a key battle on the Danube frontier against the Russian army. Despite their faith and long-standing mistrust of Ottoman rule, these Albanians fought fiercely, gaining a reputation for exceptional bravery—particularly in the brutal fighting around the Arab Tabia fortifications.

Their leader, remarkably, was a Catholic priest, who reportedly carried a cross into battle and inspired his men through both faith and valor. His dual role as clergyman and warrior symbolized the complex position of Albanian Catholics within the Ottoman Empire—subjects of a Muslim sultan yet defenders of the empire against Orthodox Russia.

After the battle, this priest was seen in Ruse (Rustchuk), decorated with the Order of the Medjidie (Rişan) by Ottoman authorities for his service. The irony was striking: men who fought under the cross now received honors from the crescent, having helped to prevent the Russians—who claimed to fight for Christian liberation—from seizing the Danubian frontier and advancing toward Constantinople.

On June 2, 1862, the paper “Grätzer Zeitung” in an article under the section “Cours-Blatt”, writes about Mirditë Albanians fighting alongside British and French troops against the Russian forces at the Battle of Silistria in 1854. The article states that a Catholic Albanian priest would lead the Mirdite fighters into battle.

From the article:

“Belonging to the Catholic Church, a fairly strong corps of this group [Mirditë Albanians] participated in the defense of Silistria in 1854 as irregulars in Turkish service and distinguished itself through its fierce bravery in the bloody battles for the Arab Tabia. Even today, the massacres in and near the so-called Arnauts Trenches are likely still fresh in the minds of Russian storm columns.

Among the many peculiarities of that war was the fact that the leader of these troops was a clergyman who not infrequently carried the cross before his comrades and led them into battle. We found him again a few months after the siege of Silistria in Ruse, adorned with the Turkish Rischan Order. He had earned it in the murderous battles before Silistria against those troops who at that time lived and died under the delusion that their sole purpose was to re-erect the Holy Cross on the Church of St. Sophia.”

Reference

https://www.google.se/books/edition/Gr%C3%A4tzer_Zeitung/WWULUURkYQ0C?hl=sv&gbpv=1