117 years ago, on February 12, 1905, Papa Kristo Negovani, one of the most patriotic priests of the Renaissance period, was stabbed to death by Greek gendarmeries brought from Crete. Papa Kristo Negovani settled for some time in Romania where he worked as a carpenter. In the atmosphere of patriotic Albanian societies, he became part of the Albanian society “Shpresa” dealing with its activity. In 1897, after returning to his homeland, he devoted himself entirely to learning the Albanian language, the freedom and independence of the country.

With Albanian books, brought to Negovan, he secretly opened the first Albanian school for his fellow villagers and with his interest the first girls from Negovani were sent to the Albanian girls’ school in Korça. Papa Kristo Negovani, on February 10, 1905, organized the church service in the Albanian language.

“Do not find you next year among the living!”

It was this curse of Karavangjelis, the bishop of Kostur, on February 10, 1905, against Papa Kristo Negovani, as they were leaving the mass of the village church.

The villagers of Negovan would never have remembered these words if what they had seen and heard had not happened two days later, on February 12, 1905, when the village was surrounded by bandits who forced thirty-year-old Kristo Negovani , aware of the last that awaited him, to leave the house in the middle of the night to massacre him, then with an ax killed his brother and four other fellow villagers.

In the agony of this massacre, terrified behind the windows, the neighbors heard the voice of the young priest, the first to introduce the Albanian mass in the church, who said to the defendant: Kill, but collect the blood in a container so that our nephews write the Albanian language ”.

The assassination of Papa Kristo Negovan was organized and carried out by the despot of Kostur. He came to the village and attended the mass held by his grandfather and when he heard that it was held in Albanian, he became angry and as furious he left the village without meeting anyone, saying that he threatened to see him again.

Before leaving, Jan Bullaka’s associates were ordered to kill 25 Albanian patriots in our village during the day, led by Dhaskal Kriston and his brother, Theodhos. This horrific murder, which took place two days later, on February 12, 1905, with knives and machete by the Greek chauvinist gang that the despot had brought, as the villagers said, from Crete, disguised in the forest near the village.

Among the literary works of Papa Kristo Negovani is worth mentioning: “History of the Old Testament”, published in Bucharest in 1899; “The dream of the sending saints”, in Sofia in 1903, etc., as well as wrote and translated into Albanian the fairy tale and many poems with didactic character.

Reference

Robert Elsie: History of Albanian Literature. Second edition. Translated from English: Abdyrrahim Myftia. Peja: Dukagjini 2001, pp. 211 – 212.