American Orthodox Pilgrimage to Lithuania

5 comments

1. We accepted Christianity from the Germans, our prayers are direct translations from German, and later a union with Poland. there were some lith nobility who accepted orthodoxy (with was usually followed by moving to Russia), but the state went from pagan to catholic (then calvinist and back to catholic), never orthodox.

2. I mean. you can visit, but orthodox? we dont really do that bro. so might not really be the best place.

3. Orthodox Church is one of the minor Christian denominations that are active in Lithuania. That said, Lithuania is unequivocally predominantly Catholic. It was converted to Christianity by Catholics, the oldest churches in Vilnius are Catholic (e.g., st Nicholas church in šv. Mykolo g. that was built in 1387, it’s a tad bit older than America). The oldest university in Lithuania was founded by Jesuits in 1579, and it was as a result of a conflict between Catholics and Reformats.

   Summa summarum: going to Lithuania to find some hithertho unexplored Orthodox mysteries (or origins) is probably not the right place. More likely than not, your sources are not reliable. On the other hand, if you are interested in how Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, followers of Judaism, and Old Believers got along with each other, how they carved their spaces in Vilnius, what the historical dynamics were, it could be an interesting pilgrimage.

4. >I was wondering if anyone can give me some feedback about the accuracy of the Eastern Orthodox Church being the foundation or providing the roots of Christianity in the history of Lithuania.

   Yes and no.

   > Do Lithuanians believe this?

   No.

   To expand on the first point, our early history/encounters with christians/christened countries or whatever land formation there was, were predominantly orthodox. The wast majority of the GDL expansion was happening in the east. If not by war then by marriage. The medieval period GDL really had no quarrels over what branch of christianity was practised since the religiosity was in name only to provide a better alliance or put up your son, daughter, nephew or niece etc. for a diplomatic marriage in orthodox lands who more than often at the second generation mark were outright assimilated by the culture and it’s people who they set out to rule/act in terms of vassalage for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (for example Vytautas the great is the great-great-great-grandfather to Ivan the Terrible of Muscovy). Some of our grand dukes started off as orthodox christians, but later down the line, for the same political reasons reverted to catholicism due to overall shifting balance and general influence from our primary allies of the time, who’s crown was also technically in our hands – Poland. Following the 1387 christening of Lithuania as per conditions of the personal union. Jogaila himself was technically an orthodox due to his mothers influences with baptism and all, but took on catholic beliefs in 1386 to marry Jadvyga. Vytautas did the same thing. Jaunutis on the other hand, after his short rule, got sent out to rule over some Rus lands and remained orthodox. Žygimantas Kęstutaitis is probably the first actuall genuine grand duke that was raised catholic and continued down that path. Mindaugas way before him, although taking a catholic baptism, did it out right with political intentions such as legitimization of his rule in the eyes of the west in mind, but overall just reverted to regular ol’ paganism in private.

   TLDR: In our official espoused religious beliefs we’ve been pagan, we’ve been catholic (protestant too if we account for the aneurism that Radvilos had in the 16-17th century with reformation and counter-reformation + the Lithuania Minor and Lithuanian Prussians being predominantly protestants due to centuries of german influence.) But never orthodox, no matter how close we came to it.

5. No, thanks.

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