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| From above by drone, the three rocks on Mount Titano, San marino |
By Alban Kraja
Good morning to everyone from this medieval country, which, in my opinion, is the most beautiful in Europe. We are in one of the smallest states of our old continent, founded in the year 301 AD by an Albanian. We are in the Land of Freedom, in the longest-living Republic in the world, in the proud and glorious Republic of San Marino. A small state of about thirty-four thousand souls, an open-air museum that shelters a great beauty of art and culture, artifacts and monuments, deserving the coveted title: World Heritage. San Marino was named after its founder, Marino (275-366 AD). But who was Marino really?
Marino came from the Dalmatian coast, which at that time, like the entire western strip of the Balkans from the Po River delta in the north to the Peloponnese in the south, was inhabited by the Illyrians-Pelasgians, the ancestors of today’s Albanians. To avoid confusion, it is good to remember that our Croatian friends and other Slavic tribes appeared in those parts of ancient Albania around three centuries after Marinus.
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| Pompeo Batoni, San Marino Raising the Republic, 1740. State Museum of San Marino. |
Marino was a devout Christian due to his maternal uncle, the second Pope of Albanian origin, Saint Caius, who baptized him at a young age before becoming Pope. This is why Marino was called by Pope Caius to come to the Italian peninsula on a mission to spread Christianity even in Romagna, where the expansion of Christianity had suffered setbacks. He arrived in Rimini at the age of 20, along with his brother Leo, whom some mistakenly consider his friend.
Marino (ma-rin-o in Albanian means: "the younger one") was the youngest of the brothers. On the other hand, Leo, who the people of Romagna call by his real name, Lè (which in Albanian means "born"), was the elder brother, and after some years, he founded the marvelous city of today's San Leo. A year after Marino was appointed as a champion of Christianity, Pope Saint Caius died, causing Marino to lose the support he had previously enjoyed.
With the loss of Pope Caius, Emperor Diocletian felt free from his obligation to his cousin, and consequently, resumed his persecution of Christians. This was the moment when Marino, feeling in danger, retreated to the Romagna hinterland with his fellow Albanians (a small community of about 400 souls) to dedicate himself to meditation and his faith. Besides his previous work as a stonemason, Marino was also a skilled knight and was known among his people as a healer.
Tradition says that during this time of spiritual retreat and meditation, Marino performed a miraculous act by healing the paralyzed son named Verissimo of a very wealthy lady from Rimini, Donna Felicissima. To compensate him, Donna Felicissima, who was very wealthy, offered Marino gold and jewels, but as a good Christian, he refused. After her insistence, Marino only asked for a strip of the mountain for himself and his small Christian community. The magnanimous lady from Romagna told Marino that all the land he could cover on horseback within 24 hours without stopping would be his and his community's.
Marino made the journey on horseback, and even today, a skilled rider could cover the perimeter of the ancient and glorious land of the Republic of San Marino in 24 hours. This, in short, is the story of a simple Albanian who became a saint and founded a state that still bears his name today, leaving behind an immense moral and spiritual legacy, and above all, a universal message to his fellow countrymen: "Relinquo vos liberos ab utroque homine." The phrase means "I leave you free from both men," referring to the Pope and the Emperor of Rome.
From the oldest republic in the world, which has never ceased to be such throughout the centuries, from the land of freedom, from this magnificent World Heritage site, San Marino, stunning to visit in every season of the year, I, Alban Kraja, greet you and wish you all the best.