Blessed Rev. Serafin Kodić Glasnović
Brother Serafin Kodić Glasnović
Blessed Serafin Kodić Glasnović (Janjevo, April 25th, 1893 – Lješ, May 11th, 1947), a blessed Franciscan priest and martyr.
Serafin Kodić was the son of Gašpar and Antonija Kodić, and at his baptism he was named Ivan. He put on the Franciscan habit at the age of sixteen, in 1909, and took the religious name Serafin. He took his solemn vows on April 28th, 1915. He was ordained a priest of the Order of Friars Minor on June 30th, 1915. He began his theological studies in Shkodra, at the Franciscan Theological Seminary, and continued his education in Graz, Austria.
After World War I, he remained in Albania, and his native Janjevo fell under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which was known for its ruthless persecution of Albanians. Apart from the Croats, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia also persecuted Albanians the most, especially Catholics, Catholic intellectuals and Franciscan priests, because they were the bearers of the literacy and culture of the Albanian people.
Reverend Serafin was the Definitor, Procurement Officer and Professor in the Province of St. Annunciation in Albania, and parish pastor in Dushman, Shalë, Prekal, Bushkash, Vukël and finally in Lezhë. He visited Janjevo several times during World War II.
After the war, he also served in Albania under the regime of communist leader Enver Hoxha. He attended a meeting of the Franciscan Province in Lezhë. The topic was the functioning of that province, of which he was the Procurement Officer. After the meeting, he was arrested and forced to falsely accuse his fellow Franciscans. He did not agree to do that so he was brutally tortured under false accusations of conspiracy. After interrogation, he was stoned and suffered severe wounds on his trachea. He literally suffocated for several days, and he died on May 11th, 1947 in Lezhë, Albania, in a Franciscan monastery that had already been converted into a hospital.
In the testimony of Ivanka Kodić from Janjevo, a close relative of the Reverend Serafin, it is written that she heard from some older people how Father Serafin was stoned in Albania, and that he endured a martyr’s death like St. Stephen, forgiving his tormentors. He lived 54 years, 37 of them as a monk, and 32 as a priest.
Nurse Marie Ndoj took care of him in the convent and later buried him. After the fall of the communist regime, in 1994, she revealed the place where she buried him. The body of Reverend Serafin was later found at the site, and was buried in the foundations of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lezhë.
His beatification process began on November 10th, 2002 in the Diocese of Shkoder, Albania. The cause for the beatification of 38 martyrs killed in hatred of the faith (Latin – In odium fidei) covers the period from 1913 until 1974. The cause was solemnly concluded on December 8th, 2010 and, in addition to Father Serafin, Father Alojzije Palić is another Croat included in the list. On April 26th, 2016, Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, had an audience with Pope Francis, who authorized him to proclaim a decree on the martyrdom of the servant of God, Vincenzo Prennushi, and his 37 martyr friends.
Father Serafin was beatified in Shkodra on November 5th, 2016, along with thirty-eight Albanian martyrs, and among them is another Croat, Don Anton Muzić.
Father Serafin’s life path is immortalized in the documentary film by Božo Vodopija, “Martyrs of the Holy Faith: Croatian Blesseds from Janjevo and Vrnavokol”.
Sources:
hbk.hr, ika.hkm.hr
Anto Baković, The Croatian Martyrology of the 20th century, Zagreb, 2007.
Editorial board/crimesofcommunism.net
