Çiprian Nika

Çiprian Nika, OFM (Shkodër, 19 July 1900 – 11 March 1948) was an Albanian Catholic priest, Franciscan, teacher, and publicist.

The diocesan process for his beatification was announced on November 10, 2002, by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, during the Eucharist at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Shkodër. Nika was beatified on 5 November 2016, in the square in front of the cathedral.

Biography He was born in Shkodër as Deda, to Mëhill Nikë and Prenda Ali Mirashi from the village of Celaj (now Shosh). Deda was orphaned of his mother at the age of five and brought to a local Franciscan orphanage. He excelled as a student and took his calling in the Order of Saint Francis. He entered the priesthood on 16 October 1916; took the provisional conditions on 23 October 1917; was ordained on 16 September 1921; and celebrated his first Mass on 25 July 1924.