Martyrs for the Millenium

Sr. Margarita Bareikaitė belongs to the order of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Lithuanian order in Putnam, Connecticut. She is also the Chairperson of the Religious Affairs Council for the Lithuanian American Community, Inc. This article was translated by Sr. Ona Mikaila.

Mečislovas Reinys

Teofilius Matulionis

Vincentas Borisevičius

Adelė Dirsytė

As we approach the year 2000 and the Great Jubilee celebrating the coming of Christ, Lithuanians all over the world are invited to pray for the canonization of four Lithuanian martyrs. They died for their faith as disciples of Christ during the religious persecutions of the Soviet era.

Three are bishops who endured torture and death rather than betray God and the Church. The fourth -- Adelė Dirsytė -- a laywoman and teacher who died in a Siberian labor camp. As canonized saints of the Church, their example and intercession would be our help and strength in the difficulties and sorrows we must face. The following are short biographical notes about each of them; some were subjects of previous articles in Bridges.

Archbishop Mečislovas Reinys (1884-1953)

After studies abroad, Reinys was ordained in Vilnius in 1907. A scholarly man, gifted educator, and pastor, his leadership qualities were soon recognized and he was consecrated bishop in 1926. He worked as assistant to the bishop of Vilkaviškis. Made archbishop in 1940, he was assistant to the archbishop of Vilnius. In 1945 he was made Apostolic Administrator of the Lithuanian part of the diocese of Vilnius. Arrested by Soviet agents in 1947 and sentenced to eight years in Vladimir prison in Siberia, he died in 1953. Buried with other prisoners in a common grave on the prison grounds, the approximated spot has been found and marked with a memorial plaque.

Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis (1873-1962)

Ordained in 1900 in St. Petersburg, Matulionis ministered in parishes with a missionary spirit in Latvia and St. Petersburg where he was secretly consecrated bishop in 1929. He served two terms in Bolshevik prisons until 1933 when he and nine priests were exchanged for Bolshevik prisoners and allowed to go home. In 1943 he became bishop of Kaišiadorys, but was again sent to labor camps in Siberia in 1946. Having spent 16 years in prison, he returned to Lithuania in 1956.

He secretly consecrated the present Cardinal Sladkevičius as bishop and for this was exiled from this diocese by the Soviet authorities. He lived in the small town of Seduva, where the KGB raided his apartment in 1962. He was given a lethal drug injection from which he died. He is buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of Kaišiadorys.

Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius (1887-1946)

Ordained in 1910, Borisevičius became a seminary professor and later rector of the Telšiai seminary. Consecrated bishop in 1940, he was assistant to the bishop and, in 1944, himself became bishop of the Telšiai diocese. Between 1945 to 1946, he was arrested and imprisoned several times. Finally in 1946, he was imprisoned in Vilnius, interrogated, and tortured. Condemned to death in 1946, he was executed by a Soviet firing squad. He was buried with other prisoners in a common grave on the Tuškelėnai estate in Vilnius.

Adelė Dirsytė (1909-1954)

After university studies in 1932, Dirsytė became a high school teacher and worked with Catholic Charities in Vilnius until 1946. At that time she was arrested and sent to labor camps in Siberia. In the various camps she developed an effective youth ministry and wrote a small prayer book to help her fellow prisoners stay in touch with God and not lose hope. Often beaten, tortured, and interrogated, she died in a prison camp hospital in 1954, just before she was due to return home. The Siberian prayer book, called "Mary, Save Us", was smuggled out to the West and published in Lithuanian in 1959. Translated into many different languages, it became the voice of persecuted Christians. Dirsytė’s burial place is unknown, but a memorial has been erected in the churchyard of St. Joseph’s Church in the town of Kėdainiai where she went to school.

We are asked to say the following prayer, which has been approved by the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference, and to sign petitions asking that the Pope canonize these Lithuanian martyrs. The petitions will be given to the bishops of Lithuania who will send them on to Rome. Kindly mail the signed petitions to:

Sr. Margaret Bareikaitė, Immaculate Conception Convent, Putnam, CT 06260

PRAYER

-- For the canonization of
the Lithuanian Martyrs --

We thank you, heavenly Father,
that during the time of religious persecution you strengthened our archbishops
Mečislovas and Teofilius,
as well as Bishop Vincentas,
giving them courage to endure torture and death as they faithfully followed
in the footsteps of Jesus
in his passion and death.

We now humbly ask you,
that through the intercession
of our Blessed Virgin Mary,
Queen of Martyrs and Mother of the Church,
our martyr bishops may be glorified
upon our altars.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.