Religion in Albania

Albania is constitutionally a secular country, and as such, "neutral in questions of belief and conscience". The most-commonly practiced Religion in Albania is Islam, the second-most-commonly practiced religion is Christianity.

Religious observance and practice is generally lax and polls have shown that, compared to the populations of other countries, few Albanians consider religion to be a dominant factor in their lives.

Christianity spread to urban centers in the region of Albania (at the time composed mostly Epirus Nova and part of south Illyricum) during the later period of Roman invasion and reached the region relatively early. St. Paul preached the Gospel "even unto Illyricum" (Romans 15:19). Schnabel asserts that Paul probably preached in Shkodra and Durrës. The steady growth of the Christian community in Dyrrhachium (the Roman name for Epidamnus) led to the creation of a local bishopric in 58 AD. Later, episcopal seats were established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint), and Scodra (modern Shkodra).

From the 2nd to the 4th centuries, the main language used to spread the Christian religion was Latin, whereas in the 4th to the 5th centuries it was Greek in Epirus and Macedonia and Latin in Praevalitana and

Since the 1st and 2nd century AD, Christianity had become the established religion in Byzantium, supplanting pagan polytheism and eclipsing for the most part the humanistic world outlook and institutions inherited from the Greek and Roman civilizations. But, though the country was in the fold of Byzantium, Christians in the region remained under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope until 732. In that year the iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III, angered by archbishops of the region because they had supported Rome in the Iconoclastic Controversy, detached the church of the province from the Roman pope and placed it under the patriarch of Constantinople. When the Christian church split in 1054 between the East and Rome,the region of southern Albania retained its ties to Constantinople while the north reverted to the jurisdiction of Rome. This split in marked the first significant religious fragmentation in the region.

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