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Sescentesima Anniversaria Apostolic Letter of the Supreme Pontiff on the Occasion of the John Paul II June 5, 1987 To my Venerable Brother Liudas Povilonis
1. The six hundredth anniversary of the "Baptism" of our Nation, which you are solemnly celebrating in this year of grace, is for you and your people an occasion for the deepening of faith, of prayer and of spiritual renewal, in which the whole Church is united with intense and fraternal participation. As I have recalled in various circumstances–and most recently in my homily at the Mass on 1 January last–the whole Church commemorates with you this very significant anniversary and with you gives thanks "to God for his inexpressible gift" (2 Cor 9:15). The Church in Rome and all the sister Churches throughout the world join you in the fervent prayer of thanksgiving that you are raising to the Lord for the inestimable grace of the "Baptism", for the welcome which it met among your people and for the benefits which it brought them, and for the strength and fervour with which your fathers preserved it and developed it amid the vicissitudes of a history six centuries long. The universal Church is aware of and grateful for the great spiritual wealth which the Lithuanian Catholic community has brought and still brings to the ecclesial communion and recognizes in its centuries-old witness of fidelity to Christ tire action of the Holy Spirit, who "by the power of the Gospel makes the Church grow, perpetually renews her, and leads her to perfect union with her Spouse ".(1) As you know, in order to manifest this universal communion with you, on 28 June next, simultaneously with the national celebration in Vilnius, I shall preside at the tomb of the Apostle Peter at a solemn concelebration, during which I shall have the joy of beatifying a great son and Pastor of your people, Archbishop Jurgis Matulaitis. At my side will be representatives of the Episcopates of the European continent their presence will express visibly our spiritual closeness to the Church which is in Lithuania. 2. The conversion of the Lithuanian peoples to Christianity took place some centuries after that of the neighbouring peoples of old Europe. Squeezed as in a vice between the East, from which the Slav peoples pressed close, and the West, from which came the powerful Teutonic Knights, your forefathers, already at the dawn of the thirteenth century, had consolidated the structures of an autonomous State, and were tenaciously committed to defending its independence and freedom. These specific political and geographical circumstances explain why the Lithuanians for so long resisted accepting the Cross from those who came against them with the sword and threatened to reduce them to subjection. It was precisely in order to escape from external pressures that, in 1251, the Grand Duke Mindaugas decided to embrace the Catholic faith and placed himself under the special protection of this Apostolic See, obtaining from Pope Innocent IV the royal crown. The Pope at the same time erected the first Lithuanian diocese and decreed that it be subject solely to the Holy See. But the conversion of Mindaugas, which was not adequately prepared, met resistance among the people, who did not follow the example of the Grand Duke. Even before the year 1260 the Bishop had to withdraw and in 1263 the tragic death of Mindaugas put an end to that shortlived spring. 3. Over a century had to go by before the bright day of the "Baptism" shone forth. This was the work and merit of an illustrious son of Lithuania, the Grand Duke Jogaila, who in 1386 agreed to be baptized together with his subjects into the Catholic faith, and obtained the crown of Poland and the hand of Queen Jadwiga, the exemplary fi |