A SACRED TASK
A true story from Albania's national awakening
By John Quanrud. Authentic Media. 217 pages
ISBN 1 85078 463 9
Gjerasim Qiriazi is a man little-known outside Albania. His life is, however, a fine example of missionary work from a time before 'the land of the eagles' became 'the world's first atheist state' that many more will now be able to take due inspiration from thanks to the author's work.
Quanrud, who studied at Prishtina University and was himself a missionary in Albania through the 90s, must have sensed a moment of revelation akin to Indiana Jones' discoveries when he uncovered packages of lost documents relating to Qiriazi's life caked in dust in the Istanbul offices of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) in 1989. If he had been wearing a wide-brimmed hat, it would have surely blown off in a sudden gust of providence. The author has since undertaken his own long and thorough 'sacred task' researching sources across the Balkans and elsewhere to present a full and valuable picture of Qiriazi's life for the first time, and reclaim him from subsequent Communist make-overs.
