Eastern Orthodoxy in Albania arrived in the area of contemporary Albania during the Roman period. In Albania, Eastern Orthodoxy underwent many changes due to sociopolitical difficulties of the medieval period resulting in the conversion of the Albanian north to Catholicism and under the Ottomans the widespread conversion of Albanians to Islam in central and southern Albania. Following the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja) tenets and the de-emphasizing of religion during the 20th century, the democratic, monarchic and later the communist governments followed a systematic de-religionization of the Albanian nation and national culture. Due to this policy as with all other faiths in the country, Orthodoxy underwent radical changes. Decades of state atheism which ended in 1991 brought a de