Metropolitan Evlogjios Kourilas and other Orthodox clerics in Korçë, 1937

Evlogjios Kourilas was born in Ziçisht, Korçë, in 1880. At the age of 14, he emigrated to Greece, where he was educated, wrote, and passed away in 1961. In the 1930s, along with Pandeli Kotoko, he was presented by the Greek side as a key figure in negotiations for the recognition of the autocephaly of the Albanian Church. As a result, Evlogjios was enthroned as the Bishop of Korçë in 1937, leaving his position as a professor of history at the University of Thessaloniki.

In 1939, after a visit to Greece, he was banned from re-entering Albania by decision of the Italian government, a ban that was later upheld by the post-war Albanian government. In Greece, Kourilas initially appeared as a political activist, a fugitive monk in Athos and Macedonia, a band commander in Egypt, and later an archivist and cataloger of manuscripts in monastery libraries. Above all, he was a researcher and author of numerous historical and philological works, as well as a professor at the University of Athens (1942-1949).

Although politically aligned with Greece, Kourilas referred to himself as an Albanian while in Greece, a claim he reiterated strongly in his writings. At the same time, he also sincerely identified as Greek. These dual self-identifications—Albanian in Greece and Greek in Greece—are key to understanding Kourilas, who rejected the “Northern Epirote” categorization, unlike his Albanian and Greek contemporaries born in Albania but active in Greece. This makes him an even more distinctive figure in regional thought.

Official circles in Albania today seem to resonate with Evlogjios Kourilas as a model for the future, though they avoid public formulations on the matter. While his nationality is not explicitly mentioned, he is regarded by Albanians as one of their own—albeit of a different kind, quietly admired for his qualities. In any case, the tension between religious faith and Albanian identity seems to have been seamlessly reconciled in Kourilas. Meanwhile, for Greeks active in Albania, the former Bishop of Korçë serves as a convenient example for influence and mission.

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“KORÇA BOOM”