Motiejus Valančius

Motiejus Valančius studied at Vilnius St. Joseph Seminary. The recorded working language is Lithuanian and Polish. The field of work recorded is church‘s ministry, Catholic theology and creative and professional writing. Positions recorded include Roman Catholic Bishop of Samogitia. Distinctions recorded are Order of Saint Anna, 3rd class, Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st class and Order of St.

• Name — Motiejus Valančius • Born — 28 February 1801 • Died — 29 May 1875 • Denomination — Roman Catholic • Birthplace — Nasrėnai, Lithuania Governorate, Russian Empire • Place of death — Kaunas, Kaunas Governorate, Russian Empire • Buried — Kaunas Cathedral Basilica • Diocese — Diocese of Samogitia • Title — Bishop of Samogitia • Term — 1850-1875

Motiejus Valančius was born February 28, 1801, into a well-to-do peasant family in Nasrėnai village, Kretinga district. Early in his youth, he had his baptismal records altered to indicate noble birth; the family name was Polonized to Wołonczewski. This practice, not uncommon among prosperous peasants, was a means of providing educational opportunities otherwise denied to Lithuanian children. In 1816 he entered the Dominican school at Žemaičių Kalvarija and six years later began his studies at the Theological Seminary in Varniai. He transferred to the Vilnius Priest Seminary in 1824, from which he graduated in 1828. Ordained a priest that same year, he spent the next six years teaching religion in Mazyr. In 1834 he returned to Lithuania to take up a teaching position at the Kražiai College. In 1840 he was assigned to the Vilnius Theological Seminary, where he lectured in pastoral theology and biblical archaeology and where he earned his doctorate in theology in 1842. That same year on orders of the Tsar, the academy, its teaching staff and student body, was moved to St. Petersburg, Russia. Valančius came back to Lithuania because of health problems in 1845 and was appointed rector of the Varniai Priest Seminary, serving in this capacity until 1850. Having been absent from Lithuania during the anti-Russian uprising in 1831, Valančius was considered to be relatively apolitical, and thus the Russian government did not object when he was proposed as an Episcopal candidate for the see of Samogitia.

• Illustration — Litas commemorative coin dedicated to the 200th birth anniversary of Motiejus Valančius He was consecrated bishop in 1850, the first peasant to head over that diocese. Taking up his duties, he guided the diocese for the next 25 years, years of religious, political and social change not only within Samogitia but in Lithuania as a whole. He expanded and improved the Samogitian parochial school network, wrote many religious books, and in 1858 inaugurated a temperance movement, which grew to encompass nearly a million members, almost half of Lithuania's population. He also wrote the first Lithuanian language history of the Samogitian diocese, which has not lost its scientific value even nowadays. His pastoral and educational work was interrupted by the uprising of 1863–1864 and was made extremely difficult as the Russian government tightened its reins after the revolt's defeat. Yet these circumstances did not prevent him from following a course that brought him into direct conflict with the authorities. He made every effort to undermine the government's scheme of Russification. In 1874 Valančius fell ill and died in Kaunas on May 29, 1875. He was interred in the crypt of the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica.