Budi was born in
Gur i Bardhë in the
Mat region, and is a noted and respected figure in Albanian cultural history. In addition to his political and religious activities, he published four books in Albanian, a rarity at the time, and was the first Albanian writer to publish a substantial amount of poetry in Albanian, some 3,300 lines of it. He trained for the priesthood at the
Illyrian College of Loretto, south of
Ancona in
Italy, where many
Albanians and
Dalmatians of renown went to study. At the age of 21, he was ordained as a
Catholic priest and was sent immediately to Macedonia and Serbia under the jurisdiction of the
archbishop of Antivar, where he served various parishes for an initial 12 years. In 1610, he was referred to as
chaplain of Christianity in Skopje and in 1616, as chaplain of
Prokupolje. In Kosovo, Budi came into contact with
Franciscan Catholics from
Bosnia. These connections proved fruitful in later years for his political endeavors to mount support for
Albanian resistance to the
Ottoman Empire. In 1599, Budi was appointed vicar-general (
vicario generale) of
Serbia, a post held for 17 years. As a representative of the
Catholic Church in the Turkish-occupied Balkans, he lived and worked in what was no doubt a tense of political atmosphere. His ecclesiastical position was in many way only a cover for his political aspirations. In 1616, he traveled to
Rome, where he resided until 1618 to oversee the publication of his works. On 20 July 1621, he was made bishop of Sapa and Sarda (i.e. of the
Zadrima region of northern
Albania), and returned to Albania the following year. On 22 August 1621 he was
consecrated bishop by
Ottavio Bandini,
Cardinal-Bishop of
Palestrina, with
Luca Alemanni,
Bishop Emeritus of Volterra, and
Giovanni Antonio Santorio,
Bishop of Policastro, serving as
co-consecrators. In December 1622, some time before Christmas he drowned while crossing the
Drin River. Among Budi's other publications are: • the
Rituale Romanum or
Rituali Roman (
Roman Ritual), a 319-page collection of Latin prayers and sacraments with comments in Albanian • a short work entitled
Cusc zzote mesce keto cafsce i duhete me scerbyem (
Whoever says Mass must serve this thing), a 16-page explanation of mass, and • the
Speculum Confessionis or ''Pasëqyra e t'rrëfyemit
(The Mirror of Confession
), a 401-page translation or, better, adaptation of the Specchio di Confessione'' of
Emerio de Bonis, described by Budi as "some spiritual discourse most useful for those who understand no other language than their Albanian mother tongue."
Pjetër Budi Street in Tirana has been named in his honour. ==See also==