I met Father Marin Sirdani around the end of 1959, or the beginning of 1960, when he was released from prison for the second time. He lived in the Assembly of Arra e Madhe, next to his friend, the distinguished linguist Father Justin Rrota, my Albanian leader. He was aware that he would not have long, because he had come out of prison devastated by tuberculosis. This distinguished historian, after his release from prison, did not write any more. He dealt with the systematization of old writings and left some messages for Father Justin, in the hope that he would live long, but they both died in less than two years, in 1962 and 1964.

I had read his study “Why Do They Blame Skanderbeg?” at the time, but I was very young and there were many things I was unable to understand. Father Justin had told me: “He is the best historian we have.” It took me years and years to understand that Father Marin Sirdani, like his brother Dom Aleksandër Sirdani, were among the brightest stars in the Albanian sky and that no black or red cloud could dim their light for centuries.

Marin was the eldest of the brothers. He was born in 1885 in the distant Boga, with a harsh nature, into a noble family, known even in other parts of the North. Their father, Daka, lost his wife early and became a widower, leaving the two brothers orphans: Marin was only seven years old, Aleksandr two years younger. The father, who did not want to marry anymore, devoted himself to raising the children. The harsh and poor Boga, the Balkan conflicts that had erupted on all sides, made the life of the Sirdani family even more difficult.

Boga, found under Ottoman occupation and under the pressure of Montenegro, which, supported by Serbia and Russia, was seeking new territories at the expense of its neighbors, had returned the highlanders to a state where it was more difficult to survive. Found in these circumstances, Dakë Sirdani had to leave his village and took refuge in Guci, where he had friends and relatives and where, in any case, life was a little better. With the help of the local priest and relatives, he managed to send his sons to school in Shkodra, where they completed primary school together.

After that, the two brothers took different directions, but the same path: that of the priesthood. Marin, having completed high school at the Franciscan College (or the Fishta Lyceum, as the people of Shkodra called it), chose the Order of Saint Francis. After continuing his higher studies in Graz, Austria, in 1916 he returned to his homeland and was ordained a priest.

Aleksandr, the younger brother, also attended the College in Shkodra, but the Severian College, which was opened and maintained by the Jesuits. He continued his higher studies, just like his brother, in Austria, in Innsbruck, an important center of Albanology, where, among others, Eqrem Çabej, Father Anton Harapi, Dom Nikollë Gàzulli studied, and in the same year, i.e. 1916, he was also ordained a priest, but in the Order of the Jesuits.

They had returned eager to serve the Fatherland in all fields where they had the opportunity and preparation. In that period (and why not today), religious education had a special priority, because five centuries of Ottoman slavery had ruined everything in the lands of Kastriot, especially the Christian faith, not because, as Frang Bardhi has left us, "where the foot of the Turk steps, no grass grows there".

Father Marini served in the first years of his priesthood in Mirdita and Dukagjin, times and areas that he would use for the publication a few years later of the work "Skënderbeu si mbas goeddhënave".

From the beginning, he demonstrated a rare will and an unparalleled cultural horizon, which is why in 1922 he was called to Shkodra, near the Franciscan College, where, together with Father Gjergj Fishta and Monsignor Vinçenc Prendushi, and many prominent intellectuals of Shkodra, they opened the first full-cycle high school, called the 'Classical High School', which they named "Illyricum".

Father Marini taught History and Christian Doctrine there; at the same time, he became the pivot of a circle of young intellectuals from Shkodra from various fields, who would soon provide a contribution that has few equals in the history of national culture. The distinguished professor was soon appointed Director of the Gymnasium.

Meanwhile, the works were written; "On National History"! "Albanian Albanians", "National Work of the Franciscans", as well as the legends that today are in the treasury of this lama in the magazines "Hylli i Dritës" and "Leka", as well as in many newspapers of the time, because he had the rare ability to communicate with all classes, as well as with intellectuals of different provincial and religious backgrounds.

At the time when he became Dean of the Franciscan Assembly of the “Arra e Madhe” Neighborhood in Shkodra, he demonstrated extraordinary interest and similar skills in communicating with young people, showing interest and making sacrifices, which sometimes even led to trouble, for the education and upbringing of young people. Typical of his role and values ​​as an educator will remain the words of Father Fishta: “The youth of Shkodra, I do not yet know what outstanding personality is among them”.

It has also been said by others that Father Marin Sirdani was one of our most learned historians, especially a historian who has not yet come to this country for the impartiality of scientific historical analysis, a methodist who unfortunately was not taken as an example by those who would later distort history. But perhaps there are still few who know the role that Father Marin Sirdani played in the difficult, treacherous negotiations between the communist state and the Catholic Church.

His comprehensive preparation, determination and clarity that, in any case, the Albanian Catholic Church had to be saved, more than once put those of the Government Commission headed by Mehmet Shehu himself in difficulty, so much so that, in order to get rid of a difficult interlocutor, they put him in prison for the second time, on the charge (unproven even with falsifications in court) that he had attempted to connect with the Vatican.

My younger brother, Dom Aleksandër Sirdani, who traversed half of our mountains as a priest, dedicated himself like few others to collecting the national spiritual wealth: legends, myths, fairy tales, proverbs, traditions, even ancient superstitions that were still encountered in the highlands.

Together with his friends, Father Donad Kurti and Don Nikollë Gàzulli, they, like bees collecting nectar, gathered a spiritual wealth of our people, which would comprise a true ethnographic corpus, despite the fact that, like many of his works, those of his brother, Father Justin Rrota, Father Donad Kurti, and Don Nikollë Gàzulli, they would exploit their own quatrains to obtain scientific degrees.

However, despite the massacre, the burning, and the loss of a good portion of his manuscripts, he remains one of the best ethnographers of our country, with only what he left to be published in the magazines of the time.

But on July 26, 1948, Dom Leka, as the people called him, filled with anger at what was happening, but also with an almost biblical faith, at Sunday mass, there in his Bogë, he told the believers: "Brothers and sisters, a black cloud has covered us, but do not be afraid, because it too will pass and a white cloud will come again and we will emerge again into the light like river stones after the rain, when the sun shines on them", borrowing the famous verse from our golden Epos of the Kreshniks.

Prophetic words, but unfortunately for this people, they were only confirmed after 43 years of unprecedented suffering. It was those words, spoken by someone who was aware of the consequences, but also ready for sacrifice, that caused the murderers of the time to attack Boga.

On July 27, 1948, using the words of the priest the day before as a pretext, they arrested him, dragged him on horseback from Boge to Koplik, until he arrived at the infamous Koplik prison without shoes or a veil, so unrecognizable that he could not distinguish what he was, where the most inhuman tortures began on him, as well as on other priests. Here is how Fritz Radovani describes the macabre death of Dom Lekë Sirdan and Dom Pjetër Çuni:

"In July 1948, when he was riding a bicycle to Shkodra (this is Dom Pjetër Çunin – DG), he was stopped on the road and taken to the Koplik investigation station. There, as a former policeman, SN, told me, he found Don Aleksandr and Father Florian Berisha, SJ, being massacred along with many mountaineers.

The priests were tortured more than the others, he says. He didn't know why, but an order was given: "Go to hell, even if you die, don't be afraid"! No one knew the reason and didn't dare to ask, since it didn't cost Xhemal Selim anything to kill him with it. The black hole was open to anyone!

One day, Asllan Lici and Pal Mëlyshi had gone to the Section (that was the name of the Police at that time, the Internal Section – DG) early. Xhemali was waiting for them in the office. After a short conversation, the three of them went out together and gave the order to go to the dungeons of Don Aleksandr and Don Pjetr, to tie them up and take them outside the Section building.

Luckily, he didn't have to risk carrying out that order, as four others had been assigned. They tied them up and took them out through a side door. They made them walk a little faster even though they were quite tired from the suffering.

Xhemali entered the office, while Asllani and Pali ordered the police to go to the horse stables and get two new and strong pitchforks. The order was to be carried out, but the thugs could not figure out what to do with the pitchforks. They also brought the pitchforks. Asllani came out first, with a ball in his hand, followed by Pali, as always, with great skill. They were led by the priest and told: "Go, you Pope's puppies, because now we will arrange your pleasure, remember that you are deceiving us with those snares of yours...!

Why don't you tell me which criminals you are connected to and which you brought bread to in the mountains?" They didn't wait for an answer but were directed to a pit in the Section's toilet, which was always open. They ordered the priest to approach the pit. Those who were watching from the windows thought they were being pressured to tell... but, suddenly Asllan put his hands on the chests of Don Pjetir and Pali, grabbed Don Aleksandar by the shoulders and, cursing God with the most foul words, only when they had given the two of them a push did they fall into the black pit.

When the priests started to rise, the executioners pushed them with a pitchfork to drown them, saying: "Hey... speak... where is your Christ... speak... this will be the end of the priests... Do you see where your Christ is, you filthy scum..."?

Above the latrine pit, only the dirty clothes of the two Velados were visible. No one saw their faces. The thugs continued to push them with pitchforks until their dead bodies sank in. After a few minutes, the priests drowned… They thought that along with the dead bodies, their work would also disappear…!

"Albania is too small for such great crimes. There are much larger countries that have also suffered under the bloody communist claws, but the crimes there are never on our scale."

I don't want to bore the reader any longer, even though there is other, more compelling evidence. Even the ones I brought from Fritz Radovani are enough to reflect the ugliness and barbarity of a system that ugliness everything, so much so that to this day we continue to experience its consequences.