
"The first phrase I learned in Albanian was Christ is risen" - This is what the late Archbishop Anastas Janullatos declared in a previously unpublished interview, the audio of which was made public by the Greek media " Protothema ".
The conversation was recorded in the fall of 2017, where Archbishop Anastasios spoke about the difficulties he encountered in 1991 when he came to Albania, but also the doubts he faced.
“It was 1991 when he first went to Albania, having already completed a very important missionary journey in Africa and distinguished himself with his skills and work in the global Orthodox community. To his great surprise, the Patriarchate asked him to travel to the neighboring country to see what was left standing from the period of harsh religious prohibitions that had preceded it ,” writes Protothema.
The first image he encountered was moving: “I landed at the airport, which was then a village building, a small group of elderly people were waiting for me and they took me to the Cathedral of the Gospel, which had been turned into a gym. There I met sick, poor people… I had to communicate with people even though I didn’t know the language at all. I was thinking about how I could summarize the meaning of my mission and I did the following: I asked an elderly gentleman, who knew Greek very well, how to say “Christ is risen” in Albanian and he told me. So I gave everyone a candle, lit mine too and said “Christ is risen”. Those were the first Albanian words I learned. Christ is risen: A message of hope. Everyone started crying and responding “He is risen indeed”. It was one of the most touching moments I have ever experienced… “Christ is risen” became our motto. "We walked with this both in good days and in very difficult ones, because it was a strong message of hope," Anastasi said.
He indicated that the Orthodox Church of Albania had ceased to exist for many years.
“It was a place without churches. They had become warehouses, stables… It was impossible to have a religious center or any form of religious expression, such as iconography. And this happened over a very long period of time, corresponding to the growth of an entire generation. So we had the impression that the Orthodox religion had ended,” he described with clarity, adding: “ This whole religious ban was an attempt to eradicate what was in the hearts of the people. I sometimes say: ‘I’m not worried about the destruction of the Church. I’m worried about the fact that they have destroyed the ability of the younger generation to believe and choose freely.’”
The Archbishop has stated that it took a long time and many significant obstacles to overcome before the solid foundations were laid upon which the rebirth of Orthodoxy would be built.
"The biggest difficulty was the suspicion, " Anastas Janullatos said, " many people were thinking, 'Why did he come here?'"
“Even after all these years that I have been here, the doubt remains. I agreed with people's doubts and continued. Because I thought that it is really difficult for many people who have lived 23 years of absolute religious persecution, who have been taught, from kindergarten to university, that there is no God, to simply accept that man, about whom they hear so much praise, suddenly came to their place because he simply believes in God. In fact, in many contexts I have used the identity of the professor, not that of His Beatitude. I remember once a deputy and professor rushed to introduce himself to me as an atheist. And I replied: “Look, the word is Greek, you are not using it correctly. You are not an atheist as you imagine, you are non-religious, but what is certain is that God is very close to you”. He smiled, replied that he agreed and we have been friends ever since.”
“The worst thing for me was when some, not only in Albania but also in Greece, started systematically slandering that Anastasius did not want other metropolitans to come, but Albania was another country to accept an entire Greek synod. I was thinking very seriously about resigning at that time: I knew that someone else who resigned at another time made a big mistake, but what would happen next? All these important things that the Orthodox Church of Albania created would not have existed.”
The slogan “All Together” has been a bright beacon and guide throughout this creative journey, and the success of creating a religious community in which people of different origins, religions, and social classes could coexist was undoubtedly one of the most important and unprecedented achievements of Blessed Anastasius.
"There was a temptation from neighboring countries to create separate religious nests in Albania: the Church of Greece its nest, Romania its nest, Serbia its nest, Skopje theirs. We chose to be all together. And we are all together, Albanians, Greeks, of Slavic origin, Vlachs, some connected to Greece, others to Romania. To make this coexistence more understandable, I bring the following example: In Greece we say "Long live the Greeks", here there is no such thing. Since the first year I came I used to say: "The forest is not beautiful if there is only one type of tree, but when there are different types of trees, all are free to grow".
In the 33 years that Anastas lived in Albania, many things changed for the better and in many of them the Orthodox Church took the lead, providing invaluable work not only religious, but also social and educational. He built schools, kindergartens, a model Theological School in which, at his insistence, women also study, youth centers, camps, health centers, metropolitan centers, hostels, workshops, food kitchens for the poor, more than 150 new churches were erected. Among them was the impressive Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, in the heart of Tirana, where his burial took place, a multitude of religious, cultural and social events were organized, the Greek newspaper writes.