Petrus Massarechius


Pjetër Mazreku or Peter Masarechi or Petar Masarechi was an Albanian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote documents on the state of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and authored an Albanian etymological dictionary.

Life

Mazreku was born in Prizren. He served as the Archbishop of Bar from 1624 to 1634, while in 1631 he became the apostolic visitor of Hungary, Serbia and Slavonia. In 1634 he was ordained as the apostolic administrator of Serbia. From 1642 until his death he served as Bishop of Prizren.
Mazreku knew many languages, and wrote an etymological dictionary of the Albanian language.

Annotations

His name was spelt in Latin and Italian as Mazzaretus, Massarechio, Maserecho, Masarecho, Masserecco, Massarecius, etc. In modern Albanian, his name is spelt Pjetër Mazreku.