ABSTRACT
The Orthodox faithful of Elbasan and Korça, the two Albanian cities with the fewest Hellenists, strongly embraced the fledgling nationalist movement and thus created friction with Greece. Korça would ultimately be at the forefront of the growing Albanian ecclesiastical movement. In 1867, the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed Visarion, an Albanian from Elbasan, as the metropolitan of Durres. Visarion allowed teaching in Albanian in the schools of Elbasan, Tirana, and Durres. The metropolitanate of Florina, in what today is north-western Greece, also had a significant Albanian population. The first substantial push to establish an Albanian Orthodox Church came from the United States of America. The Albanian diaspora in Romania was another important hub for the growing ecclesiastical movement at the turn of the century. Greece, too, had not foreseen that support for the Albanian national movement would be so strong among Orthodox Albanians.
