Early life Sevasti was born
ca. 1870 to the patriotic
Qiriazi family of
Tërnovë,
Monastir, in today's
North Macedonia, then
Ottoman Empire. She was the sixth of ten children. Her family's religious background was
Orthodox, and she began attending a Greek-language primary school at age four.
Education Sevasti attended the
American College for Girls at Constantinople from 1888–1891. Her brother
Rev. Gjerasim Qiriazi arranged her enrollment. becoming the first Albanian female to complete a college education. In Korçë she led Bible studies and prayer meetings for women. She was a "
Bible Woman" and was financed by the
ABCFM's Woman's Board of Missions and the Bible Lands Missions' Aid Society. She referred to herself as a missionary when traveling to the USA to visit
Ellen Stone and
John Henry House in 1904.
The Korça Girls School (1891–1914) Founding and operations After her graduation from college, Sevasti returned to Monastir and then to Korçë, where she joined her brother Gjerasim in opening an Albanian-language school for girls. Sevasti was its director. The school operated under difficult conditions including poverty, prejudice against female education, difficulty in obtaining books, political opposition from local Ottoman authorities, and political and ecclesiastical opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church. Despite these unfavorable circumstances, the school maintained an average yearly enrollment of 47 students during 1891–1913. The school received significant visitors such as
Edith Durham in 1901 and
Henry Brailsford in 1904. Its founders were Evangelicals, it was supported by Protestant organizations, its educational curriculum included religious subjects with biblical texts, and its premises were used for Evangelical Sunday School and worship services. However, the school welcomed students of all religions and its teachers did not require conversion to Protestantism. It was praised by Albanians of all religions and classes as being a "national nest" (
fole kombëtare).
Leadership When Gjerasim Qiriazi died in 1894, Sevasti Qiriazi (at approximately 23 years old) assumed full responsibility for the Girls School. A delegation from the Congress visited the Girls School in Korçë after the conclusion of the Congress, including
Luigj Gurakuqi,
Fehim Zavalani and Nyzhet Vrioni. In 1909 Sevasti was invited in her role as director of the school to take part in the
Congress of Elbasan which aimed to address national education in Albania. She attended with her brother Gjergj Qiriazi. The ceremony was performed by Protestant missionary Rev.
Charles Telford Erickson. They had two children, Aleksandër "Skënder" Dako (1910–1995) and Gjergj Dako (1913–1949). The full English rendering of their names was Alexander Gerasim Dako and George Charles Dako (
namesakes for her two deceased brothers Gjerasim and Gjergj). Both boys studied for eight years at
Robert College.
Friendship with Charles Crane In 1911, Sevasti and her husband Kristo Dako were visited in Monastir by American businessman
Charles Richard Crane, who was on the board of the American College for Girls at Constantinople and sought to learn more about Albania and the Near East. Crane had learned about Sevasti and Kristo through Edward I. Bosworth, dean of
Oberlin Seminary and formerly K. Dako's professor at Oberlin. later spending several summer holidays at Mr. and Mrs. Crane's summer home at
Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Exile from Albania and second journey to the USA In 1914, due to hostilities with Greek forces in Korça, Sevasti, her husband, and their two children were forced to flee Albania, and the Girls School was closed. They spent nearly 12 months living in
Bucharest and
Sofia before emigrating to the United States in 1915 and settling in
Natick and
Southbridge, Massachusetts, where she would assist her husband in opening the first Albanian school in America at the local
YMCA They resettled in Boston (
Jamaica Plain) where Sevasti assisted her sister in publishing the semi-monthly periodical ''Yll'i Mëngjezit / Morning Star'' (1917–1920), and where she and her husband became more involved in
Vatra and the Albanian national cause. ==Return to Albania and later years==