February 3 is known in Albania as the martyrdom day of Saint Vlash.

On February 3, 1926, the painter Lin Delija was born in Shkodër. He attended the College of Franciscan Friars. With the coming to power of the communist regime and the violent closing of the “Illyricum” high school, he was forced to leave his homeland to escape the communist persecution. He studied in Herzegovina and then in Zagreb at the Academy of Fine Arts. With the help of Ernest Koliqi, he secured a scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. His first visit to his homeland was in 1992, after the fall of the communist regime. He bequeathed a part of his work to the National Art Gallery in Tirana. The painter Lin Delija closed passed away on April 9, 1994 in Rome at the age of 68.

On February 3, 1940, Father Martin Gjoka, the first creator of the epic of church music in the Albanian language, passed away. He was born in Tivar, Montenegro, on April 20, 1890, but he develops his activity in Shkodër. He studied theology in Salzburg, Austria, and became a central figure of music in Albania in the years 1910-1940.

On February 3, 1947, after going through a terrible period of torture, Monsignor Gjergj Volaj was sentenced to death and shot on the day of St. Vlash. He was born on September 21, 1904, in Shiroka, Shkodër. In 1916 he entered the Shkodër seminary. While then, he continued his higher studies in Padua, Italy. In 1930, Monsignor Lazer Mjeda was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Shkodra at that time. Engaged in apostolic activities within this archdiocese. In 1940, at the age of 36, he was appointed Bishop of Sapa, thus becoming the youngest Bishop in the world.

Monsignor Gjergj Volaj was arrested in January 1947, tortured and shot after a month of torture at the age of 43.

On February 3, 2006, the prominent Albanian writer Vath Koreshi passed away. He was born in Lushnja in 1936. Koreshi is one of those filmmakers who laid the foundations and successfully cultivated the genre of the script based on concrete facts. Vath Koreshi, as a prominent personality of the national culture, gave a significant contribution to the further reformation and consolidation of pluralism of thought and the strengthening of the democratic spirit in Albanian politics. Vath Koreshi was a member of the Assembly of Albania and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports during the years 1991-1992.

Alvabuab Outstanding writer and poet, Dritero Agolli passed away on February 3, 2017. Dritero Agolli was born on October 13, 1931 in Menkulas i Devolli. He got his first lessons in his hometown. He finished his higher studies in literature in Petersburg. He worked as a journalist for a long time in the daily newspaper “People’s Voice”, and for many years he was the Chairman of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania. Dritëro Agolli was elected MP for thirty successive years. Dritëro Agolli entered Albanian literature from the beginning as its protagonist, changing the size of the future. The literary work of Dritëro Agolli created the new tradition of Albanian literature. The simplicity of communication, universal messages, rich folk phraseology and life philosophy make Agolli’s literary work one of the most read. He passed away at the age of 85, to remain one of the most prominent figures of the Albanian pen.

/a.p./