Albanians were the first christians in the Balkans.
The moral flame common to all Albanian clerics of all creeds was similar to the ancient apostolic zeal combined with a fiery patriotic feeling. Christianity in Albania is an apostolic one, i.e., it has been instilled to "Arbërs" (old Albanians) directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ's Apostles themselves and became widespread in Illyria as early as the 1st century AD as an illicit religion. About 57 AD, Apostle Paul writes, "So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ... where Christ was not known". (Rom. 15:19-20). Besides Paul, many other saints have preached across Illyrian lands, and they would pass into the Balkan space along a highway, Via Egnatia, which started from Durrës (Dyrrachium) to proceed eastward. Records say that there were 60 Christian families in Dyrrachium in 58 AD. The earliest Christian bishops launched their activities just in Illyria, beginning with bishop Qesar of Durrës in 70 AD and later with St. Asti in 98 AD. Emperor Trajan and the local ruler Agrikoli sentenced St. Asti to death in 116 as by this time Rome prohibited and condemned Christian practices.
The first Christian centres established through the preaching activities of both Apostles and their Illyrian supporters during the 1st century AD to the 4th century AD (when Christianity became a legal religion) can be ascertained across such cities as Dyrrachium, Butrint, Onhezm (Saranda), Jeriko, Vlora, Apollonia, Amantia, Bylis (Ballsh), Antipatrea (Berati), Skampis (Elbasan), Scodra (Shkodër), Lyhnid (Ohrid), etc. Among mosaics and old church structures such as those in St. Nicholas’s Church in Kurjan of Fier, Ballshi's basilica, etc., early Christian symbols are preserved, such as heart-shaped vegetation leaves (see Butrinti's mosaics and elsewhere), crucifix shapes in Saranda's mosaics, fish shapes both in Ballshi's wood carvings and other mosaics such as that of Lin of Pogradec and elsewhere.
The illegal sign of the name of Jesu Christ (first century AD) is found only in some Illyrian and Roman antique Basilicas. This sign is formed from the crossing of seven lines and one arch. Such evidence testifies to Illyria's having become, from the very start, one of the main regions of propagating Christian religion for several reasons -- its very ancientness and the great expansion of its people, its big urban development with cities such as Dyrrachium, Apollonia, Shkodër, etc., and its very favourable geopolitic position as a natural corridor between East and West for transmitting Christianity's moral values and transporting an endless host of armies and battles... In the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity an official religion, hence it was codified in the Bible, and its institutions -- churches and monasteries -- were created; its bishops, archbishops, abbots and their dioceses with their headquarters in Rome came into being.
The full conversion to Christianity of territories where the Albanians of today live was carried out during the 5th and 6th centuries. St. Jerome (Hieronymus) of Illyria made the first translation of the Bible in Latin (La Vulgata) giving the world for the first time the Holy Bible in the mid-4th century. The first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 was the first to articulate the basic principle of Christianity, "I believe in one God, the Almighty Father, the creator of heaven and earth and of all what is seen and unseen." St. Niketa of Dardania (Remesianes) authored the principal prayer of Christianity (its chief hymn) TE DEUM LAUDAMUS (We Praise Thee, God) which continues to be the principal prayer to date after more than 15 centuries. Being in war against barbarian tribes, Constantine the Great gave orders to build several magnificent basilicas.
The types of such basilicas consist of a rectangular floor, whose laying with mosaics was something preferable. In their outer sides there were colonnades whereby the church's portico was concocted. Such kinds of basilicas have been found in Albania as well, in Butrint, Bylis, Antigone, Tepe in Elbasan and probably elsewhere. During the period of late antiquity, church structures were organized on province basis (Dardania, Prreviewit, New Epirus and Old Epirus); each having a metropolis at their head to which bishoprics were subordinate. Until the 8th century, Illyrian church was directly subordinate to Rome. This is why Albanian church terminology, i.e., words such as mass, Eucharist, priest, saint, baptism, bishop, cross, malediction, etc. are of Latin origin. This also shows that in the 4th to 6th centuries, when such phenomena as church language, etc., were sanctioned, the Arbërs were present in these places. After the split of the Empire, they were included in the East Illyricum zone, whose church subordination would shift between Rome and Constantinople. Beginning from the first half of the 8th century (the year 731 following Leo the Isaurian's decision on the re-division of Eastern dioceses from the Western ones) the Illyrian space (already known as the land of Arbërs) was divided into zones subordinate to Constantinople's Patriarchate, and zones subordinate to Rome. It is commonly held that River Mati might have been the dividing line between Byzantium and Rome.
Krijoni Kontakt