1. Theofan Stilian Noli, known as Fan Noli, was an Albanian-American writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, historian, orator, bishop, and founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church and the Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America who served as Prime Minister and regent of Albania in 1924 during the June Revolution.
Fan Noli is venerated in Albania as a champion of literature, history, theology, diplomacy, journalism, music, national unity and ecumenism.
Fan Noli played an important role in the consolidation of Albanian as the national language of Albania with numerous translations of world literature masterpieces.
Fan Noli wrote extensively in English: as a scholar and author of a series of publications on Skanderbeg, Shakespeare, Beethoven, religious texts and translations.
Fan Noli produced a translation of the New Testament in English, The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the approved Greek text of the Church of Constantinople and the Church of Greece, published in 1961.
Fan Noli was ordained a priest in 1908, establishing thereby the Albanian Church and elevating the Albanian language to ecclesiastic use.
Fan Noli briefly resided in Albania after the 1912 declaration of independence.
Fan Noli then served as prime minister until his revolutionary government was overthrown by Ahmet Zogu.
Fan Noli was exiled to Italy and permanently settled in the United States in the 1930s, acquiring US citizenship and agreeing to end his political involvement.
Fan Noli spent the rest of his life as an academician, religious leader, and writer.
Fan Noli was born Theofanis Stylianos Mavromatis 1882 in Ibriktepe, a small village situated in the Thracian Ottoman Vilayet of Adrianople which was originally settled by Albanians from Qyteza.
Fan Noli was an Albanian of the Eastern Orthodox faith.
Fan Noli was a descendant of these Orthodox Christian Albanian settlers who fled what is today southern Albania and resettled in Thrace in areas that had been depopulated due to regional conflicts.
Fan Noli went to Athens to become a teacher, and there he used the name Theofanis Mavromattis.
Fan Noli first worked in Buffalo, New York, in a lumber mill and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and worked as an operator on a machine which stamped labels on cans.
The Young Turks had a hostile view of Albanian leaders such as Fan Noli who were doing political activities with the assistance of outside powers.
Fan Noli was a staunch supporter of Albanian patriotic unity and a separation of religion from the state and moreover, considered it important for religious office to be held by clergy fluent in Albanian and possessing Albanian citizenship.
In 1908, Fan Noli began studying at Harvard, completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.
Fan Noli returned to Europe to promote Albanian independence, setting foot in Albania for the first time in 1913.
Fan Noli returned to the United States during World War I, serving as head of the Vatra organization, which effectively made him leader of the Albanian diaspora.
In 1921, Fan Noli entered the Albanian Parliament as a representative of the liberal pro-British "People's Party", the chief liberal movement in the country.
Fan Noli served briefly as Foreign Minister in the government of Xhafer Ypi.
Zogu was succeeded briefly by his father-in-law, Shefqet Verlaci, and by the liberal politician Iliaz Vrioni; Fan Noli was named prime minister and regent on 16 June 1924.
Two weeks later, Zogu returned to Albania, and Fan Noli fled to Italy under sentence of death.
Fan Noli founded the "National Committee" known as KONARE in Vienna.
Fan Noli moved back to the United States in 1932 and formed a republican opposition to Zogu, who had since proclaimed himself "King Zog I".
Fan Noli unsuccessfully urged the US government to recognize the regime, but Hoxha's increasing persecution of all religions prevented Noli's church from maintaining ties with the Orthodox hierarchy in Albania.
Fan Noli composed a one-movement symphony called Scanderbeg in 1947.
Toward the end of his life, Fan Noli retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he died in 1965.
Fan Noli is interred in Forest Hills Cemetery, situated in the southern part of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
The Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America founded by Fan Noli went on to join the Orthodox Church in America, today led by Metropolitan Tikhon Mollard as the Albanian Archdiocese.
The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, which Fan Noli served in Albania, is presided over by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, headquartered in the Albanian capital city of Tirana and a member of the World Council of Churches.
Fan Noli was one of the prominent political and literary figures of the beginning of this century.
Fan Noli today enjoys a great popularity in our country, deserved as a literary translator and music critic.
Fan Noli was a prominent promoter of the Albanian language.
Fan Noli was respected as a realistic politician, as a revolutionary democrat in ideology and politics.
Fan S Noli is depicted on the obverse of the Albanian 100 leke banknote issued in 1996.