Durrës celebrates its patron, Saint Astin/ Archbishop Joan: The true Christian testifies with life, not just with words

2026-07-06 11:01:00, Aktualitet CNA

Durrës celebrates its patron, Saint Astin/ Archbishop Joan: The true

The city of Durrës honored this Monday the feast of its patron saint, Saint Asti, the martyr bishop who gave his life for the faith in Christ.

At the Cathedral of "Apostle Paul and Saint Asti" in Durrës, believers joined in prayers in an atmosphere of solemnity, as the celebration was led by His Beatitude, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, Joan.

During his sermon, Archbishop Joan emphasized that the example of the martyrs is not just a past story, but a call for every Christian in everyday life.

His Beatitude Joan said that the strength of Christianity does not lie only in preaching with words, but above all in the testimony of the lives of believers.

Archbishop Ioan emphasized that what the Church and God require of believers is witness through their lives. He invited those present to take as an example the lives of the martyrs, who, according to him, imitated Christ in every aspect of their lives.

“Once they asked a saint, a saint of modern times, and they said to him, ‘Why did Christianity spread so much in the first centuries and not so much later?’ And he answered, it’s simple: ‘Because in the first centuries Christianity was preached by Christians.’ It means that they witnessed with their lives and words the teaching of God, not just with words.

Everyone agrees on many things that we say, everyone agrees that we should be humble and we are all proud. Everyone agrees that we should not gossip and we all gossip. Everyone agrees that we should not slander, steal and many other things, and yet we still do them. This kind of preaching is not true preaching, it is only in words. It can often even have the opposite effect. What the church asks of us, what God asks of us, is to testify with our lives. Therefore, let the lives of the martyrs serve as an example for us. And let us always remember the life of a martyr and the words of a very great martyr like Saint Paul who says: 'Be imitators of me, as I am an imitator of Christ.'

A martyr is exactly this, he imitates Christ. He imitates Christ in everything, in word, in the cross and will undoubtedly follow him in the resurrection. Let us pray to the great saint, the protector of the city of Durrës and the protector perhaps of the entire church in Albania, who undoubtedly prays for each of us, to intercede with God to bless the church and our country, to illuminate it and always give it a light not only for himself, but to illuminate the people around us. Amen”, expressed His Beatitude, Joan.

Saint Asti, bishop of Durrës, remains an emblematic figure for Christianity. According to tradition, he played a crucial role in spreading the faith during periods when Roman persecutions were severe. /CNA