On August 17, 1911, the patriot of the national Renaissance, Petro Nini Luarasi passed away, poisened.

He took his first lessons in the Albanian language when he was a student at the Qestorati school of master Koto Hoxhi. In 1887 he opened the first Albanian school in Erseka and in the years 1892-1893 the Albanian schools in the provinces of Kolonja and Vakëf. He was a teacher and director of Mësonjtorja Shqipe /Albanian School/ of Korça (1893) and later of the school of Negovan (1909-1911).

He emigrated to the United States, becoming a promoter of the patriotic societies “Malli i Mëmëdheut” /The Longiing for Motherland/ and “Pellazgu” /The Pelasgian/. He took part in the Second Congress of Letters in Manastir in 1908 and collaborated with the organizations “Bashkimi i Kombit” /Union of the nation/, “Drita” /The Light/, “Kombi” /The Nation/ in Boston, “Iliria” /Illyria/ in Selanik/Thessaloniki.

In the work “Curse of Albanian letters and slander of the Albanian” (Manastir, 1911) he defended the rights of the Albanian people for national culture, defining knowledge and culture as “the soul of the homeland”.

/a.p./