Pal Engjëlli

Pal Engjëlli was an Albanian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as archbishop of Durrës from 1460 to 1469. In 1462 he wrote the oldest known text in Albanian.

Life

Pal Engjëlli was a part of the Engjëlli family. His father was Andrea Engjëlli and his mother was Dorothea Arianiti. Pal is reported to have been a friend, co-worker and close counselor of Skanderbeg. As his envoy, he frequently traveled abroad, seeking aid in the war against the Ottoman Empire.
Engjëlli managed to convince Lekë Dukagjini to leave the Ottomans and later reconcile with Skanderbeg, and also to convince Skanderbeg to violate an armistice signed with the Ottomans.

The Baptism Formula Document

The sentence was the baptismal formula in the Gheg Albanian : Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spertit Senit. and in the Tosk-based standard: ).
The formula was found in a pastoral letter written in the Latin script by Angeli after his visit to the Church of Holy Trinity in Mat. The letter is dated 8 November 1462. The formula was meant to be used by Albanian priests to render the ritual understandable for people ignorant of Latin. Probably it was meant also to be used by Albanian people in the countryside, unable to take their children to be baptized to a church. The formula was approved by a synod in Mat, Albania, in 1462.
The document containing the baptismal formula is held in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, Italy. It was discovered in 1915 by the Romanian scholar Nicolae Iorga.