Teofilius matulionis

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Teofilius Matulionis (* July 4, 1873 in the peasantry Kudoriskis , Skiemonys parish, Anykščiai district , Vilnius governorate , Russian Empire ; † August 20, 1962 in Šeduva ) was a Lithuanian clergyman and Roman Catholic bishop of Kaišiadorys . In the Catholic Church he is venerated as a blessed .

Life

Teofilius Matulionis was born as the second son of the farmer Jurgis Matulionis and his wife Ona. He first worked as a teacher, then he studied philosophy and theology at the seminary in Saint Petersburg . On March 17, 1900, he received the sacrament of ordination . He worked as a pastor in Bikova, Latvia , and later in Petrograd . He was arrested for the first time by the communists in 1922 and spent two years in prison.

Pope Pius XI appointed him on December 8, 1928 auxiliary bishop in Mahiljou and titular bishop of Matrega . The underground bishop Anton Malecki secretly donated his episcopal ordination on February 9 of the following year.

In 1929, Bishop Matulionis was arrested again and initially imprisoned for one year in Leningrad, then sentenced to ten years in a camp. He spent this first in the gulag on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea and from 1931 in a camp near Leningrad. The hard work in the forestry, hunger, cold and mistreatment by the Soviet communists affected the physically weak, but could not shake his mental stability. He was later transferred to a Moscow prison.

In 1933 the Lithuanian government obtained his release. In the following years, Bishop Matulionis was pastor of the Benedictine convent in Kaunas and visited the Lithuanian congregations in the United States. After an audience with Pope Pius XI. on March 24, 1934, he knelt to receive the papal blessing. But the Pope picked him up, knelt down in turn and said: “You are a martyr. You are the one giving the blessing. ”In 1940, he was appointed chief military chaplain of the Lithuanian Army .

Pope Pius XII appointed him on January 9, 1943 Bishop of Kaišiadorys .

In 1946 he was arrested again for a pastoral letter asking believers to pray for the good of society. The Ministry of State Security of the USSR rated this as an anti-Soviet act, insofar as a prayer for the good of society could be interpreted as if Soviet society needed a prayer, as if it were not already perfect. Bishop Matulionis was first imprisoned in a Moscow prison without a trial, then deported to Siberia and finally to Mordovia . He was not released until April 1956. The ban on exercising his bishopric remained in place. He lived under house arrest and under surveillance by the KGB in the rectory in Birštonas , then in Šeduva . A few months before he died as a result of abuse in the prisons and camps, Pope John XXIII drew him . with the personal title of Archbishop .

beatification

After the end of Soviet rule, the beatification process was initiated. Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of Teofilius Matulionis on December 1, 2016 . The beatification was carried out by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints , Angelo Amato , on behalf of the Pope on June 25, 2017 in Vilnius. Teofilius Matulionis' liturgical feast day is June 14th.

literature

  • Pranas Gaida: Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis. Shepherd, prisoner, martyr. Schnell and Steiner, Munich and Zurich 1986, ISBN 978-3-7954-0097-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Bernadeta Miliauskaite-Harris: Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis: The Beatification of a Lithuanian Martyr . In: Bridges. Lithuanian American News Journal , Vol. 22, No. 9 (November 1998) , pp. 22-24.
  2. ^ The Venerable Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis (1873–1962) on the website of the Archdiocese of Vilnius, accessed on June 26, 2017.
  3. ^ A b c Baltic States Investigation. United States Congress , accessed December 2, 2016 .
  4. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , December 2, 2016, accessed December 2, 2016 (Italian).
  5. ^ First Lithuanian Martyr of Soviet Regime Raised to the Altars. Archdiocese of Vilnius , June 25, 2017, accessed June 25, 2017 .
predecessor Office successor
Juozapas Kukta Bishop of Kaišiadorys
1943–1962 		Juozapas matulaitis
personal data
SURNAME Matulionis, Teofilius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lithuanian clergyman, Roman Catholic bishop of Kaišiadorys, archbishop
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Kudoriskis , Vilnius Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH 20th August 1962
Place of death Šeduva