Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris
Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris (27 August 1884 – 21 September 1964) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in Albania. He became an archbishop in 1938.
Biography[edit]
Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris was born on 27 August 1884 in Ampezzo, Italy. He was ordained a priest on 18 July 1909. He devoted the next twenty years to teaching and education administration.[1]
On 18 August 1938, Pope Pius XI appointed him titular archbishop of Philippi and Apostolic Delegate to Albania.[2][a]
He received his episcopal consecration on 25 September 1938 from Giuseppe Nogara, Archbishop of Udine.
On 11 November 1939, Pope Pius XII named him Apostolic Administrator of Southern Albania.[3] In this traditional Orthodox rather than Catholic region of Albania he guided Catholic missionaries to a less aggressive approach to conversions, advising the less aggressive approach of persuasion by providing models of virtuous life rather than through argument; he was suspicious of mass conversions. He feared the Italian occupation of Albania in 1939 would harden sectarian divisions.[4]
In 1945 the new Communist government, intent on establishing a national church without ties to Rome, had him arrested an expelled from Albania as persona non grata.[5]
Returned to Rome, he became secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.[1]
He died in Rome on 21 September 1964 at the age of 80.[6]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Catholic Hierarchy incorrectly identifies Nigris as Apostolic "Nuncio" to Albania.
References[edit]
- ^ a b Ellero, Elpidio. "Nigris, Leone Giovanni Battista". Dizionario Biografico dei Friulani (in Italian). Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XXX. 1938. pp. 320–1. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
Delegato Apostolico in Albania
- ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XXXII. 1940. pp. 139–40. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Murzaku, Ines Angjeli (2009). Returning Home to Rome: The Basilian Monks of Grottaferrata in Albania. Analekta Kryptoferris. pp. 202–3, 218, 224. ISBN 9788889345047. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Elsie, Robert (2010). Historical Dictionary of Albania. Scarecrow Press. p. 76. ISBN 9780810873803. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. LVI. 1964. p. 788. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
