June of this year Lithuania
(Painting by the Polish artist Zbigniew Gierczak, shows him in his bishop's garb under his prison uniform.)
He suffered repeated imprisonment by Soviet communists during his lifetime. While residing in St. Petersburg , he witnessed the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, but continued to live in the city then renamed Leningrad Solovetsky Islands , Russia
After four years of hard labor and subsisting on starvation rations, he was released as a part of a prisoner exchange between Lithuania and the Soviet Union . from 1933 until 1940, He was appointed as ordinary of the Diocese of Kaišiadorys, Lithuania Rome , the Holy Land, and the major Lithuanian parishes in the US Chicago , he blessed the monument to the Lithuanian pilots, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, which was erected in Chicago ’s Marquette Park USA
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| In the USA- 2nd from left |
With the occupation of Lithuania
In 1957, he secretly consecrated Vincentas Sladkevičius bishop. For this “transgression,” the Soviets further exiled him to the town of Šeduva.
Pope (St. ) John XXIII bestowed the title of Archbishop to Teofilius Matulionis in 1962 and also extended to him an invitation to attend the Second Vatican Council. That same year, after a police raid of his apartment, Archbishop Matulionis died under suspicious circumstances. His remains were exhumed in 1999 and tests confirmed that he had been poisoned with a lethal injection.
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| 1895 (right)- with brother |
Bl. Teofilius is characterized by his especial loyalty to the Church. Although he constantly faced persecution, he never compromised his faith. He trusted in God and persisted in following God’s will, regardless of the circumstances in which he was placed – prison, concentration camps, exile, his home diocese or abroad. He was a living example of the Christian faith for everyone.
In an April 13 pastoral message, the Lithuanian bishops' conference said Archbishop Matulionis had "lived the Easter message" and that he had consistently shown "peace, confidence and goodness," even to his persecutors.
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| The Prisoner |
Archbishop Grusas said the martyred prelate had "offered up his sufferings for the conversion of Russia Lithuania
The last Lithuanian to be beatified, Bishop Jerzy Matulewicz-Matulaitis, who lived from 1871 to 1927 and was the founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, was declared blessed in Rome
The church also is seeking the beatification of Bishop Vincentas Borisevicius, who was shot in 1946 for alleged links with underground fighters, and Archbishop Mecislovas Reinys who died in a Russian prison in 1953.
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| With Children |
Archbishop Grusas said, however, that beatifications had been delayed by a lack of canonically trained experts in the Lithuanian church following Soviet rule. He said with recent funding and technical support he hoped the cases of other martyrs could be brought forward.
"We're dealing with recent history, but as we rebuild our church, we're gaining the resources and expertise we need.”
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