Pope Francis paid tribute this Wednesday, February 14 to Cardinal Ernest Simoni, 95 years old, a true Albanian “living martyr” who spent 18 years of his life between prison and forced labor during the communist era.
11,107 days of captivity, 11,107 days of forced labor and prison. This is the ordeal that Albanian Cardinal Ernest Simoni went through in the 20th century. A “living martyr” now aged 95 to whom Pope Francis paid vibrant tribute during the general audience this Wednesday, February 14.
Ernest Simoni was born in 1928 in Albania. He grew up in a simple and poor but deeply religious family. At ten years old, he managed to enter the Franciscan college in Troshani. But while the young man is studying, the dictator Enver Hoxha comes to head the country, establishing state communism. Hoxha then made religion an obsession and declared it illicit. While insecurity and violence increased in the country, the Franciscan college was ransacked in 1948 by communist forces who transformed it into a place of torture for prisoners.
Despite the repression, in the young man’s heart the vocation of priest was born. The regime, repulsed by such a choice, then decided to send him to teach in a village lost in the mountains before forcing him to do two years of military service. Ernest Simoni persists, he will be a priest whatever happens. In 1956, he was finally ordained and exercised his ministry in the diocese of Scutari in northwest Albania.
Priests are the enemies of the Nation
On Christmas night in 1963, the night when Christ in his infinite love changed the face of the world by becoming man, the life of Don Ernest Simoni changed in turn. After his mass in Barbullush in northern Albania, he was arrested in the name of his faith: “Priests are the enemies of the Nation”. Without any other form of justice, without any trial, he is condemned to death. His sentence was ultimately commuted to 25 years in prison and hard labor.
If Christ during his Passion carried a wooden cross, Don Ernest Simoni carried a small pickaxe which will resonate for many years in the Albanian mines. In the walls of his prison, he engraves the proof of his total abandonment: “My life is Jesus ”. Despite the torture and suffering, he continued his ministry in secret to the prisoners by celebrating masses and making confessions. Sentenced to death again in 1973, he escaped execution thanks to the testimonies of prisoners and guards in his favor.
In 1981, he was “freed” from his chains. It is only his chains, because although he is no longer a prisoner, Don Ernest is still considered an “enemy of the people”. He is then sent to the sewers of the city of Scutari to work there. After the fall of Russia , the European communist regimes all fell one by one until Albania’s turn on September 5, 1990.
Model of faith and humility
It’s not often that Pope Francis cries. But facing Don Ernest, he let his tears flow. It was September 21, 2014, in the cathedral of Tirana. This man, whose hands are marked by years of suffering, found the strength to say: “I have forgiven my tormentors everything, because it is in the past.”
In 2016, touched by the journey of this priest with giant faith, Pope Francis made him a cardinal , the first in the history of Albania, even though he is not even a bishop. Since then, Don Ernest has been dressed in red. Red like his martyr.
