Qerim Sadiku
{{Short description|Albanian Catholic martyr}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix = Blessed
| name = Qerim Sadiku
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| titles = Martyr
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|2|12|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Vusanje, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (today Montenegro)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1946|3|04|1919|2|12|df=yes}}
| death_place = Shkodër, Albania
| venerated_in = Roman Catholic Church
| beatified_date = 5 November 2016
| beatified_place = Saint Stephen's Cathedral, Shkodër, Albania
| beatified_by = Cardinal Angelo Amato
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| feast_day = 5 March
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Qerim Sadiku (12 February 1919 – 4 March 1946) was a Catholic Albanian blessed who had converted from Islam. He was executed by a firing squad in Shkodër along with clerics Danjel Dajani, Giovanni Fausti, Gjon Shllaku, Mark Çuni and Gjelosh Lulashi.{{Cite web|url=http://www.kishakatolikeshkoder.com/martiret-e-komunizmit/qerim-sadiku/|title=Martiret e Komunizmit|last=Kisha Katolike Qerim Sadiku|website=Kisha katolike Shkoder|date=19 October 2015 |access-date=1 June 2018}} He was accepted as a martyr by the Catholic Church in 2016, part of the Martyrs of Albania.{{Cite news|url=http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/96474|title=Beati Martiri Albanesi (Vincenzo Prennushi e 37 compagni)|last=Flocchini|first=Emilia|access-date=6 October 2017|agency=Santiebeati}}
Life
Sadiku was born in Vusanje, Montenegro, then Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on 12 February 1919 and was baptized as a Catholic. He married a Catholic woman, Marije Vata, in September 1944. Sadiku was an anticommunist, an Albanian nationalist and had been a lieutenant in the gendarmerie force under Zog I of Albania.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XotAQAAIAAJ|title=The criminal file of Albania's communist dictator|last=Pjetër Pepa|publisher=Uegen|year=2003|page=59|isbn=9789992754276 }} During World War II he owned a shop in the Gjuhadol neighbourhood in Shkodër and did not become involved with politics until the end of the war.Di Pinto, 206
Although he had a Muslim name, he was a Catholic, and extremely devoted to attending church functions. In church he would stay mostly in a praying position, on his knees, rather than standing. He is also remembered for going often on pilgrimages with his wife to the St Anthony Church, a holy place in Albania.Di Pinto, 395
Sadiku was arrested and imprisoned in Shkodër on 3 December 1945, on the accusations of not going to vote, distributing flyers for other people to abstain from voting, and for being a member of the Albanian Union, an organisation that was considered by the communists to be "fascist".Di Pinto, 400 On 22 February 1946, after the trial of the members of the Albanian Union he was sentenced to death.{{cite book|author=Owen Pearson|title=Albania in the Twentieth Century, A History|volume=III: Albania as Dictatorship and Democracy, 1945–99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4wx7kQp4bgC&pg=PA18|year=2004|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-105-2|pages=18–}}
Sadiku was shot, at age 27, in the morning of 4 March 1946 at the Catholic Cemetery of Rrmaji in Shkodër by a firing squad of eight soldiers of the Albanian communist dictatorship government, along with clerics Danjel Dajani, Giovanni Fausti, Gjon Shllaku, Mark Çuni, and Gjelosh Lulashi.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlQtAQAAIAAJ|title=Në gjurmët e nji ditari: shkodra në tri vitet e saj të parë nen komunizëm në sigurim ndër burgje e kampe|last=Ahmet Bushati|publisher=Camaj-Pipa|year=2001|page=99|isbn=9789992741115 }} His last words were "I forgive those who may have hurt me. I forgive those who have sentenced me, as well as my executioners. Long live Christ our King. Long live Albania!"Di Pinto, 402{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XotAQAAIAAJ|title=The criminal file of Albania's communist dictator|last=Pjetër Pepa|publisher=Uegen|year=2003|page=78|isbn=9789992754276 }} For the entire day, the bodies were left outside to terrorise the population. The following night, a mass grave was dug near the river bed, where the bodies were buried and covered with rubbish bins, in order to conceal the traces of the execution. Sadiku's child was born to Marije six months after he was killed.
In 2016, Sadiku was accepted by the Catholic Church as a blessed, part of the Martyrs of Albania. The beatification ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato at the Shkodër Cathedral, Albania.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
Sources
- {{cite book|author=Leonardo Di Pinto|title=Imzot Vinçenc Prennushi me shokë martirë: profil historik hagjiografik|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoZMAQAACAAJ|year=2016|publisher=Enti Botues Arqipeshkvia Shkodër-Pult|isbn=978-99927-955-8-3}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadiku, Qerim}}
Category:20th-century Albanian clergy
Category:20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
Category:20th-century venerated Christians
Category:Albanian beatified people
Category:Albanian people executed by the communist regime
Category:Albanian Roman Catholics
Category:Beatifications by Pope Francis
Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Sunni Islam
Category:Albanian former Sunni Muslims