DAY 79 - MAMURRAS TO LEZHE: 18.3 MILES (36,600 STEPS)

A Tale of Two Heroes

“Should you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.” Jeremiah 45:5, NIV

Statue of Mother Theresa at Tirana airport Albania has two great heroes—Mother Theresa who was in fact Kosovan and born in Skopje, Macedonia, and Skanderbeg who was buried in Lezhe.

Skanderbeg was a warrior king in the classical mold—a brilliant military strategist, wily political operator, and brutal despot. In 1444 he formed the League of Lezhe to challenge the Ottoman Empire. Skanderbeg was an educated man of noble stock. From his fortress at Kruje he managed to unite the Albanian princes and be a thorn in the side of the Ottoman Turks and frustrate their advances in Western Europe—especially the northern city-states of Italy.

Over a period of twenty years, he was victorious in twenty battles and withstood three sieges of Kruje. In some ways these ancient military leaders can be respected because they didn’t sit in short sleeves in air conditioned situation rooms, thousands of miles away from the battlefield, watching events unfold on HD flat screen TVs, whilst sipping cups of filter coffee before giving permission for satellite guides missiles to be unleashed against the enemy.

Skanderbeg monument, LezheIn Skanderbeg’s time, to commit to battle was to lead your forces onto the battlefield yourself and experience the utter carnage and arbitrary slaughter at first hand. One wonders today, if we would see quite so many military engagements, if our political commanders, or their family members, were required to personally lead their military forces onto the battlefield and look their opponents in the eye. Back to Skanderbeg in the battlefield—to merely survive so many battles was deemed to be proof that the ‘Gods were on your side’ and so the legend would grow. It is claimed that he had killed three thousand Turks with his own hands. He survived the slings and arrows of his opponents on the battlefield until the age of sixty-three and fell victim to a mosquito bite and died of malaria. After his death the kingdoms of Albania came under the protection of the powerful city-states of Naples and Venice as a mark of their gratitude for his thwarting of Ottoman expansion.

Mother Theresa–Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born in the Ottoman Empire in 1910 and at the age of eighteen decided to become a nun, leaving her native Albania (following the Treaty of London in 1912, Skopje was part of Albania) and went to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in the southern suburbs of Ireland—here she learned English and trained as a teacher. The Sisters of Loreto had a mission school in India and soon Teresa (named after Theresa of Lisieux—parton saint of missionaries following her vows) went to become a teacher and later headmistress of Loreto Convent School in Calcutta. Challenged by the effects of the Bengal Famine in 1943, she decided to leave the relative comfort of the convent, and to devote herself to the service of poorest of the poor by living among them. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity and the mission statement she wrote, stated that the work of the Order was: “To care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” It is clear from her early diary entries that this was far from an easy decision, as she had no income and needed to beg for supplies and for accommodation. The vulnerability she experienced during these personal times of poverty, created within her an empathy, an understanding of what it meant to be poor and laid the spiritual foundations for a remarkable work.

It started with a handful of nuns and today has over 4,000, still delivering life saving and life dignifying care—what a legacy. On my journey through Albania, Kosova and Montenegro, I have lost count of the number of cathedrals which have been dedicated to the memory of this ‘sister of the poor’. In an age in which people crave attention and accumulation of the vestiges of power, she turned her back on them all. The more she rejected the material and political trappings of power, the more she accumulated a far greater moral power based upon love of humanity.

Skanderbeg may have slain 3000, but Mother Teresa must have saved hundreds of thousands. Skanderbeg may have accumulated vast wealth and lands, Mother Teresa gave everything she had away to the poor. Skandebeg was resplendent in his armour and flowing hair, Mother Teresa was small in stature and wore a simple white sari. Skanderbeg pursued power, Mother teresa pursued people. Albania may have two national heroes, but only one is universally known and revered outside its borders—there is a reason for that, and there is a lesson in that.