Bl. Vinçenc Prennushi

Kolë Prennushi was born in Shkodër, Albania, in 1885, when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire. He became a Franciscan friar as Vinçenc, was ordained in 1908, and wrote poetry, history and religious works in Albanian.

He became Bishop of Sapë and in 1940 Archbishop of Durrës. After the war, the Communist leader Enver Hoxha pressed him to head a national Albanian church cut off from the Pope. He refused. He was arrested, sentenced to twenty years, and died in Durrës prison on March 19, 1949, after torture. He heads the list of thirty-eight Albanian martyrs beatified in Shkodër in 2016.

Vinçenc Prennushi was beatified in 2016.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.