One of the traditional aspects most jealously guarded by the Albanians in Italy is the religious one.  Even today, in most of the Italo-Albanian communities the Greek-Byzantine rite is still alive. Quite interesting is the examination of the parable that led the Universal Church to divide into a Church of the West and a Church of the East and how many difficulties have had the Albanians to preserve their being Church of the East in Italy, homeland of the Western Church.

The presence of the tradition of the Eastern Church in Italy has ancient origins: they date back to the first half of the sixth century, when Justinian, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, took possession of Italy. This domination lasted over the years, although later only affected the southern regions of Italy, ranging from Apulia to Calabria and Sicily. In this context an event of great interest for the Church of Eastern tradition in Italy were the migrations of multitudes of monks who, persecuted by emperors opposed to the cult of the sacred images, the so-called iconoclasts, left their land and settled in Italy, especially in Sicily, where, although always subject to the rule of Constantinople, they found rest.

The conquest of Sicily by the Arabs led these monks to emigrate to Calabria.

The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom

The prerequisite of the ecumenical apostolate is mutual knowledge among the various Christian communities.

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, together with that attributed to St. Basil, in use in the Byzantine Church, is not only a text of sacrificial prayer, precious for its antiquity, but also an effective vehicle of knowledge of the Byzantine Ecumene, whose life and soul it reveals to us. In fact, it represents and renews the twofold manifestation of God to the world with the descent of the Word on earth, first, to work redemption there and with the ascent to heaven to effect Pentecost, prelude and beginning of his return with glory, then, to establish in the glorious state the pleroma ecclesial (Christ and us).

Through the Holy Liturgy, humanity, by call and by right, becomes a participant in the doxological-Trinitarian Choral Liturgy celebrated by the One Church, the angels and men, headed by Christ the Pontiff.

From the whole text it is noted that one is the call, one the Church, one the liturgy, one the sacrifice, one the Trinitarian doxology that, although celebrated in the sensitive nature, is essentially the same one that is already celebrated in the future century that is in heaven and that, being accomplished in divine glory, it is supra-temporal and supra-spatial and supra-numerical, that is, always in existence and universal.