The first Albanian language document written 563 years ago in Mat

In the Church of the Holy Trinity in Mat, 563 years ago, the "Baptism Formula", the first document in the Albanian language, was written.

On November 8, 1462, a church council was held, chaired by the Archbishop of Durrës, Pal Engjëlli, a close friend and collaborator of our national hero, Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg.

The Ottoman invasion of Albanian lands caused a delay and disruption not only in religious organization, but in the entire Catholic religion as a whole.

The Assembly's main purpose was to discuss and make important decisions and ordinances to regulate the existing situation throughout the Catholic faith.

The assembly was attended by a majority of the clergy of Central and Northern Albania, the bishop of the Lis diocese, Andrea, the country's money, and an innumerable multitude of the population of this area.

Among other things, in addition to the rules and ordinances that were approved at the assembly, Pal Engjëlli left the baptism formula written in Albanian, so that it could be read by priests during the baptism of children, and in the absence of priests, this formula could also be pronounced by the children's parents.

The holding of this assembly is documented, within a register of 37 parchment leaves, which was found in the Laurentina Library of Florence in Italy in 1916 by the Romanian scholar Nicola Iorga.

Seven pages of this register contain the decisions, orders, rules proclaimed by Paul the Angel, as well as the baptismal formula in Albanian, which also coincides with the Matjan dialect.

More specifically: “I BAPTIZE YOU IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT”, and the Albanian translation is “I BAPTIZE YOU IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT”.

The baptismal formula, although a short fragment, is of particular importance as it is a monument of early medieval Albanian.

It is new evidence of the writing of the Albanian language at an earlier date than the Meshari of Gjon Buzuku (1555), which was considered the only and earliest evidence of the writing of Albanian.

So, on this basis, we can say that Mati is the place of the first writing in Albanian, of the "Baptism Formula", the first document in the Albanian language dated in 1462.

Today, in the ruins of the Holy Trinity, located in the village of Dazjan i Mat, in the Macukull Administrative Unit, there is a memorial dedicated to this important church assembly./ ATSH

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