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 LITHUANIANS

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LITHUANIANS

of King Jagello, who became Regent of Poland upon his marriage. Subsequent, political union with Poland had a disastrous and depressing effect upon the national development of the Lithuanians. For five centuries they were more or less polonized by the nobility and land-owning classes and even through the Church, and this process is not entirely at an end but is even reinforced by Russian pressure. Lithuanians were made to believe that they were a sort of inferior race and that their language was fitting only for a pagan people. Attempts to awaken their national consciousness in 1850 and 1860 and to create a national literature were suddenly arrested by the Russian Government, which in 1864 absolutely prohibited the publication and distribution of Lithu- anian books printed in Latin characters. From that time the Lithuanians were deprived for over forty years of hterature printed in their own language, since they absolutely refused to adopt the Russian characters. Even prayer-books and other hterature had to be printed abroad and secretly introduced into Lithuania, where they were often confiscated by the Government and burned. Their only avenue towards literary and religious development was chiefly Polish during that period.

The Lithuanian national movement started in 1883 when Dr. John Basanavicius in conjunction with some other enthusiasts in Prussia began to jiublish a patriotic newspaper called "Ausra" (The Dawn). In a short time many Lithuanians — both clergy and laity — were thoroughly aroused and rallied to the support and ideas of the paper. This was the beginning of a national movement which was destined to play a distinct role even in the religious life of the nation. The most difficult task for the young patriots was to draw the Lithuanians away from the Pohsh language and Pohsh ideals. Unfortunately some leaders of the national movement who had been educated in the anti-Cathohc Russian schools soon brought an anti-religious propaganda into this na- tional movement, on the groimd that everything taken from Polish sources, — even the Cathohc re- ligion — was detrimental to the Lithuanian nation. So hand in hand with this national awakening there came into play an atheistic teaching which soon estranged the clergy and laity. Even now when Lithuanians use the word "national" it is often taken to mean something which is non-Cathohc or non-reUgious. And this is why Protestantism and the so-called "independent" movements have taken no root among the Lithuanians, although in a few places under peculiar local conditions there have been attempts to found parishes along the lines of the Pohsh "national" or "independent" churches. When Lithuanians began to come to America there had been no national awakening among them. They then leaned towards the Poles and built churches jointly with the Poles. The first purely Lithuanian congregation was organized in 1885 at New York, but it ceased to exist the following year owing to the unfavourable attitude taken by its organizer, John Szlupas, who was a freethinker although secretary of the parish. However there is now at New York the Church of Our Lady of Vihia. The first Lithu- anian church (St. Casimir) was built by Father A. Burba in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, in 1889. It was undertaken when the Poles refu.sed on account of his nationality to accept him as rector of a Plymouth church which had been built some years previously principally by the Lithuanians and had always hither- to been in charge of a Lithuanian priest. Soon after- wards separate Lithuanian churches were built in other places: St. Ciusimir at Pittston, Pa. (1890); St. .losepli, .Mahanov City, Pa. (1891); St. John Baptist, Baltimore, Md. (1891); St. George, Chicago, 111. (1802); etc. At present (191.3) there are in the United States 72 exclusively Lithuanian parishes

with resident priests, and one (St. Casimir) in Mont- real, Canada. There are also about 15 churches and chapels attended from adjacent parishes and others in the course of erection.

Schools. — In th(' beginning of 1913 the Lithu- anians in Anu>rica had one academy for girls and 22 day-schools taught by the Sisters of St. Casimir, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Sisters of the Holy Ghost, and the Dominican Sisters; some ten schools had lay teachers. Nearly 5000 children attend these schools. In 1907 Bishop J. W. Shanahan of Harrisburg got permission from Rome to found in his diocese the Institute of St. Casimir, the object of which was to teach Lithuanian schools, take care of Lithuanian orphans and the like. The first three sisters came from Ingenbohl, Switzerland, to Mount St. Mar3''s Seminary of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart at Scranton, Pa., in 1905 and made their pro- fession there in August, 1907. Immediately after- wards they went to Mt. Carmel, Pa., where they started a Lithuanian school whilst other postulants were left for training in Scranton. In 1910 the Sisters of St. Casimir moved to Chicago and occupied their newly-built mother-house at the corner of West 67th and South Rockwell Streets. There are at present (1913) 17 professed sisters, 25 novices, and 25 postulants and aspirants. They also have in the mother-house an academy for girls, both a boarding- and day-school. So far they have four parochial schools under their care: Chicago, Waukegan, Phila- delphia, and Mt. Carmel. The St. Casimir Institute is still under the general charge of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart. Its finances are supervised by Father A. Staniukynas who has been interested in the institute since 1905, and on giving up parish work in 1906 he has ever since devoted all his time and energy to the growth of this educational institu- tion.

Societies. — About forty per cent of the Lithuani- ans belong to some kind of organization. Every parish has one or more Cathohc beneficial societies; the)' are often Catholic only so far as the fulfilment of Easter duty is demanded from their members under penalty of expulsion from the society. The Lithuanians of America since 1886 had a general alliance of their societies, but in 1901 it split into two branches, the Cathohc and the National. At present the Catholic branch has about 6500 members, while the National has about 6000. In Sept., 1912, Lithuanian Cathohc beneficial societies at their con- vention in Newark, N. J., formed still another alliance, whose membership has not yet been reported. In April, 1906, the Lithuanian Roman Catholic Federa- tion was formed but it has not been active since 1908. In the New England states a Lithuanian Young People's (men and women) Federation is being formed. The Lithuanian Cathohc Temperance As.sociation was formed in 1909, but in 1911 a large number seceded and formed a separate Confedera- tion of Total Abstainers, membership over 1000. The Lithuanian Roman Catholic Priests' Associa- tion, established 5 May, 1909, devotes its energy to the publication of Catholic literature. It issues a weekly paper "Draugas" (The Companion) in Chicago. "The Apostleship of Prayer" under the direction of Rev. P. Saurusaitis of Watorbury, Conn., circulates in many parishes. There is also a Lithu- anian Cathohc Educational Society, "Motinele", which was founded in 1900. There are other societies which arc socialistic, atheistic in their aims, or devoid of any religious character whatever.

Periodicals. — There are more than twenty-five Lithuanian periodicals published in America, but only two weeldies, "Draugas" in Chicago and "Zvaigide" (The Star) in Philadelphia, and one monthly, "Sviesa" (The Light) in Waterbury, are strictly speaking Cathohc publications. The Lithu-