Felicija Nijolė Sadūnaitė

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Felicija Nijolė Sadūnaitė (born July 22, 1938 in Kaunas ) is a Lithuanian nun and dissident .

Life

Nijolė Sadūnaitė attended Jonas Biliūnas Middle School in Anykščiai , where she graduated from high school in 1955. In 1956 she joined the Congregation of the Švenčiausios Nekaltai Pradėtosios Mergelės Marijos tarnaitės (Servants of the Immaculate Conception of Mary), which was founded at the suggestion of Honorat Koźmiński . She worked as a secretary and factory worker. She then completed medical courses in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius .

In 1974 Nijolė Sadūnaitė was arrested and sentenced in 1975 to three years imprisonment and then three years in exile for copying and distributing the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church ("Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčios kronika") . She was imprisoned in the ZHKH-385 / 3-4 camp, a Gulag women's prison in Mordovia . She then lived in exile in Boguchany in Siberia .

In 1980 Nijolė Sadūnaitė returned to Lithuania and started working for the banned "Kronika" again. She was therefore monitored by the KGB and arrested several times, including in 1988 and 1989, during perestroika . Together with friends, she collected donations to support political prisoners and their families. In 1987 - on the occasion of the anniversary of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact - she co-organized (together with Antanas Terleckas , Vytautas Bogušis and Petras Cidzikas ) a demonstration at the Adomas Mickevičius monument in the old town of Vilnius against the ongoing Soviet occupation agreed by Stalin and Hitler .

Her autobiographical report, based on her diaries, A rays from the Gulag , in which she describes her spiritual path as a Christian and her experiences in the camp, received great attention . The book has been translated into more than a dozen languages ​​(in German in two volumes under the titles of God's underground fighter and Secure in the shadow of your wings ) and has been reissued over and over again. In Lithuania, Nijolė Sadūnaitė is considered a national hero because of her courage and tenacity.

Awards

Fonts

  • God's underground fighter. In court - memories - letters . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7171-0874-3 .
  • Safe in the shadow of your wings. Persecuted for the sake of faith . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1989, ISBN 3-7171-0919-7 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Raimonda Ramelienė: Nijolė Sadūnaitė: "Dažniau pakelkime akis į dangų" (Lithuanian), Lietuvos žinios , January 13, 2018, accessed on June 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b Dick Kamp Gold: The Lady and the Chekists . In: Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1988.
  3. ^ A b c Rushworth M. Kidder: To "Underground Nun" in Lithuania . In: The Christian Science Monitor , April 24, 1989 ( online ).
  4. ^ Bill Keller: Lithuanians Rally for Stalin Victims . In: The New York Times, August 24, 1987.
  5. ↑ George Weigel: In the Land of Crosses . In: First Things , September 25, 2013.
  6. ↑ 2017 m. Laisvės premijos laureatė Nijolė Sadūnaitė (Lithuanian), accessed June 2, 2018.
  7. ↑ Apdovanotų asmenų duomenų bazė (Overview of State Awards) on the website of the President of Lithuania, accessed on July 7, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Sadūnaitė, Felicija Nijolė
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lithuanian nun and dissident
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaunas