Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevicius
Encyclopedia
Mariampole
Mariampole is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czerwonka, within Maków County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately east of Czerwonka, east of Maków Mazowiecki, and north of Warsaw....
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
– 27 January 1927 in Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
, Lithuania) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Vilnius from 1918 to 1925 and founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary are a Roman Catholic religious congregation. They were founded at Marijampolė, Lithuania, by the Most Rev. Archbishop George Matulaitis, MIC on October 15, 1918....
. On 28 June 1987, Pope John Paul II beatified
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
him as the Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulewicz.
Biography
Matulaitis was the son of poor farmers and baptized at the monastery church of the Marian Order in Mariampole. He learned his Catholic faith in catechism class at the monastery, from the Marian priest, Jurgis Cešnas. He was orphaned at an early age—his father dying in 1874, and his mother in 1881. In his youth, Matulaitis developed a weakness in his right arm and leg, that prevented him from working with his brother on the farm, and kept him away from classes at the school. His illness was years later diagnosed as tuberculosis of the bone, which he suffered with for the rest of his life.Much time spent alone, led Matulaitis to develop his keen intellect. When his uncle, a priest in Warsaw, Poland, saw his potential, he offered to pay for his high school education at a minor seminary. And when civil authorities closed the Warsaw seminary, Matulaitis moved to the only remaining seminary in the Russian Empire, the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy
Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy
The Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy was an institution of higher education preparing Roman Catholic theologians in the Russian Empire. The Academy granted master's and doctorate degrees in theology and was designed to prepare officers for senior positions in the Catholic Church...
. Ordained to the priesthood on 20 November 1898, his high academic marks led his bishop to send him to the University of Fribourg
University of Fribourg
The University of Fribourg is a university in the city of Fribourg, Switzerland.The roots of the University can be traced back to 1582, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of law was founded by the state of Frobourg...
, in Switzerland, for doctoral work.
Outside the watchful eye of the Russian civil authorities, Fribourg became a place for free discussion of the sad state of the Lithuanian homeland. With other students from Lithuania, Matulaitis talked about a Catholic cultural revival. Becoming convinced that religious Orders were best suited to the work of such a revival, Matulaitis traveled home, to Mariampole, to discuss with one of the last remaining members of the suppressed Marian Order the possibility of secretly resurrecting the group. Trips to Rome and Mariampole set the plan, approved by the Marian Superior Vincent Senkus, in motion.
Matulaitis completed his doctorate in theology at the University of Fribourg
University of Fribourg
The University of Fribourg is a university in the city of Fribourg, Switzerland.The roots of the University can be traced back to 1582, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of law was founded by the state of Frobourg...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He then returned to teach Latin and canon law in the seminary in Kielce
Kielce
Kielce ) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants . It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship...
. He then moved on, to head of the newly established sociology department, and served as vice rector of the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy, teaching dogmatic theology
Dogmatic theology
Dogmatic theology is that part of theology dealing with the theoretical truths of faith concerning God and his works, especially the official theology recognized by an organized Church body, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Dutch Reformed Church, etc...
. All the while the renewal of the Marians was taking place in secret. Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
approved a new interim Constitution as the group's rule. Matulaitis then secretly took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a member of the Marian Congregation in 1909. With the death of the last Marian, Fr. Senkus, a hastily organized meeting on 14 July 1911, elected Matulaitis the Superior General of the Congregation of Marians
Congregation of Marian Fathers
The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is a Roman Catholic male clerical religious congregation founded, 1673, in Poland...
, which, at that point, consisted of him and 2 other priests—though there were seminarians preparing to join the group. Though he was a respected teacher, priest, spiritual director and confessor, Matulaitis' secret work with the Marians put the renewal—and the Seminary—in danger. Matulaitis decided it was time to resign his position at the academy to work for the Marian Order.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Marijampolė, Lithuania, Fribourg
Fribourg
Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
, Switzerland, and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Just as it seemed the work of the Marian renewal was seeming to take root, Matulaitis heard the rumors that he was being considered for the position of bishop. He accepted the call of Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...
to serve as the Bishop of Vilnius. Matulaitis had just founded the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lithuania, 15 October 1918. ( He also founded another Congregation, the Handmaids of Jesus in the Eucharist, in 1924, in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
). He was installed as Bishop of Vilnius on 8 December 1918.
For seven years, he headed the diocese of Vilnius through the aftermath of World War I
Aftermath of World War I
The fighting in World War I ended in western Europe when the Armistice took effect at 11:00 am GMT on November 11, 1918, and in eastern Europe by the early 1920s. During and in the aftermath of the war the political, cultural, and social order was drastically changed in Europe, Asia and Africa,...
. Vilnius Region
Vilnius region
Vilnius Region , refers to the territory in the present day Lithuania, that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time,...
was at the center of the Lithuanian–Soviet
Lithuanian–Soviet War
The Lithuanian–Soviet War or Lithuanian–Bolshevik War was fought between newly independent Lithuania and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in the aftermath of World War I. It was part of the larger Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919...
, Polish–Soviet and Polish–Lithuanian War
Polish–Lithuanian War
The Polish–Lithuanian War was an armed conflict between newly independent Lithuania and Poland in the aftermath of World War I. The conflict primarily concerned territorial control of the Vilnius Region, including Vilnius , and the Suwałki Region, including the towns of Suwałki, Augustów, and Sejny...
s. The constantly shifting battle lines meant that Vilnius changed hands frequently between Germans, Bolsheviks, Lithuanians, and Poles. Finally, wearied by his efforts, Matulaitis requested to be relieved of his pastoral duties in 1925. But no sooner was his request granted, than he was appointed Archbishop by Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
, and sent back to Lithuania to negotiate a concordat between the new nation of Lithuania and the Vatican, and establish the nation's dioceses.
In 1926, as Archbishop, Matulaitis traveled to the United States for a second time, and participated in a Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. He returned to Lithuania and completed the negotiations with the Lithuanian government. In Kaunas, a city under curfew, Matulaitis fell ill. Because of the curfew, he remained in his apartment, and died of a ruptured appendix on 27 January 1927.
Personal Motto
Overcome evil with good.- --taken from Saint Paul the Apostle; inscribed on Matulaitis' coat of arms.
Titles
- Bishop Emeritus of Vilnius
- Titular Archbishop of Adulis
- Superior General of Congregation of Marian Fathers