TheChristianization of Lithuania (Lithuanian:Lietuvos krikštas) occurred in the late14th and early15th centuries, initiated by the Lithuanian royalsJogaila,King of Poland andGrand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousinVytautas the Great. It signified the official adoption ofCatholic Christianity byLithuania, the lastpagan country inEurope.[1] However, Lithuania's first ruler to be baptised wasMindaugas in 1250s. This event ended one of the most complicated and lengthiest processes ofChristianization in European history.
Lithuanians' contacts with the Christian religion predated the establishment of theDuchy of Lithuania in the 13th century. The first known record ofthe name Lithuania (Litua), recorded in theAnnals of Quedlinburg in 1009, relates to the mission led byBruno of Querfurt, who baptised several rulers of theYotvingians, a nearbyBaltic tribe. Nonetheless Bruno didn't reachLithuania proper.[2]
Lithuanians had more active contacts with theKievan Rus' and subsequentEastern Slavic states, which had adoptedEastern Orthodox Christianity following theChristianization of Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. From the 12th century onwards, Orthodox missions reachedLatgale andNalšia, directed fromNovgorod,Pskov, andPolotsk.[3] By the end of that century, Catholic missionaries began arriving in the Baltic territories, withSaint Meinhard, theBishop of Livonia, as a pioneer.[4]
As the dukes of Lithuania extended their dominion eastwards, the influence of the Slavic states on their culture increased. Their subordinates and the people followed their example, borrowing, for instance, many of the East Slavic versions of Christian names in the 11th–12th centuries. This borrowing became increasingly widespread among the pagan population inAukštaitija, though much less so inSamogitia. The influence of Orthodox Christianity onpagan Lithuanian culture is evidenced in about one-third of present-day Lithuanian surnames which are constructed frombaptismal names areOld Church Slavonic in origin.[5] In addition, the Lithuanian words for "church", "baptism", "Christmas" and "fast" are classed as loanwords from Ruthenian rather than Polish.[6]
The emergence of a monastic state of theLivonian Order around the Lithuanian borders made it rather urgent to choose a state religion. The first Lithuanian Grand Duke to adoptWestern Christianity wasMindaugas, although his nephew and rivalTautvilas had done that earlier, in 1250. The first translations of Catholicprayers fromGerman were made during his reign and have been known since.[7][8]
In 1249, Tautvilas' allyDaniel of Galicia attacked Navahradak, and in 1250, another ally of Tautvilas, the Livonian Order, organized a major raid againstNalšia land and Mindaugas' domains inLithuania proper. Attacked from the south and north and facing the possibility of unrest elsewhere, Mindaugas was placed in an extremely difficult position, but managed to use the conflicts between the Livonian Order and theArchbishop of Riga in his own interests. In 1250 or 1251, Mindaugas agreed to receive baptism and relinquish control over some lands in western Lithuania, for which he was to receive a crown in return.
Mindaugas and his family were baptised in the Catholic rite in 1250 or 1251. On July 17, 1251Pope Innocent IV issued apapal bull proclaiming Lithuania aKingdom and the state was placed under the jurisdiction of theBishop of Rome. Mindaugas and his wifeMorta were crowned at some time during the summer of 1253, and theKingdom of Lithuania, formally a Christian state, was established. Even after nominally becoming a Catholic, King Mindaugas did not cease sacrificing to his own gods.[9] Despite the ruling family's baptism, Lithuania had not become a truly Christian state, since there were no fruitful efforts to convert its population; Lithuanians andSamogitians stood firmly fortheir ancestral religion. Some of this might be attributed to theGolden Horde tumanbashi Burundaj's campaign in 1259 and 1260, which caused destruction in Lithuania proper andNalšia.[citation needed]
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Mindaugas' successors did not express enough interest in following in his footsteps. There were decades of vacillation between the Latin and the Orthodox options.[10] "ForGediminas andAlgirdas, retention of paganism provided a useful diplomatic tool and weapon... that allowed them to use promises of conversion as a means of preserving their power and independence".[11] Grand Duke Algirdas had pursued an option of "dynamic balance". Throughout his reign, he teased bothAvignon andConstantinople with the prospects of a conversion;[12] several unsuccessful attempts were made to negotiate the conversion of Lithuania.[13]
To avoid further clashes with theTeutonic Order, in 1349, Lithuanian co-rulerKęstutis started the negotiations with PopeClement VI for the conversion and had been promised royal crowns for himself and his sons. Algirdas willingly remained aside of the business and dealt with the order in the Ruthenian part of the state. The intermediary in the negotiations, Polish KingCasimir III, made an unexpected assault onVolhynia andBrest in October 1349 that ruined Kęstutis' plan. During the Polish-Lithuanian war for Volhynia, KingLouis I of Hungary offered a peace agreement to Kęstutis on 15 August 1351, according to which Kęstutis obliged himself to accept Christianity and provide theKingdom of Hungary with military aid, in exchange of the royal crown. Kęstutis confirmed the agreement by performing a pagan ritual[14] to convince the other side. In fact, Kęstutis had no intentions to abide the agreement and ran away on his way toBuda.[15]
By the 14th century, theGrand Duchy of Lithuania had emerged as a successor toKievan Rus in the western part of its dominions.[16] Although its sovereign was pagan, the majority of the population was Slavic and Orthodox. To legitimize their rule in these areas, the Lithuanian royalty frequently married into the OrthodoxRurikid aristocracy of Eastern Europe. As a result, some Lithuanian rulers were baptised into Eastern Orthodoxy either as children (Švitrigaila) or adults. The first one wasVaišelga, son and heir ofMindaugas, who took monastic vows at an Orthodox monastery in Lavrashev[17] nearNovgorodok and later established a convent there.[18]
The final attempt to Christianize Lithuania was made byJogaila. Jogaila's Russian mother urged him to marry Sofia, daughter ofPrince Dmitri of Moscow, who required him first to convert to Orthodoxy and to make Lithuania a fief of theGrand Duchy of Moscow.[19][failed verification] That option, however, was unrealistic[why?] and unlikely to halt the crusades against Lithuania by the Teutonic Order. Jogaila chose therefore to accept a Polish proposal to become a Catholic and marryJadwiga of Poland. On these and other terms, on 14 August 1385, at the castle ofKrėva, Jogaila agreed to adopt Christianity, signing theAct of Krėva.
Jogaila was duly baptised at theWawel Cathedral inKraków on 15 February 1386 and became Władysław II Jagiełło, theKing of Poland. The royal baptism was followed by the conversion of most of Jogaila's court and knights,[20] as well as Jogaila's brothersKarigaila,Vygantas,Švitrigaila and cousinVytautas. Jogaila sent Dobrogost, Bishop ofPoznań, as ambassador to PopeUrban VI with a petition for the erection of anepiscopal see at Vilnius and the appointment ofAndrzej Jastrzębiec to fill it.
Jogaila returned to Lithuania in February 1387. The baptism of nobles and their peasants was at first carried out in the capitalVilnius and its environs. The nobility and some peasants inAukštaitija were baptized in spring, followed by the rest of the Lithuanian nobility. The parishes were established in ethnic Lithuania and the newVilnius Cathedral was built in 1387 on the site of a demolished pagan temple. According to the information of disputed accuracy provided byJan Długosz, the firstparochial churches were built in Lithuanianpagan townsVilkmergė,Maišiagala,Lida,Nemenčinė,Medininkai,Kreva, Haina and Abolcy, all belonging to the Jogaila's patrimony. Jogaila destroyed the old places of worship:altars,sacred groves, killedgrass snakes and other snakes that were regarded as divine guardians of households at the time.[21] Thepapal bull issued byPope Urban VI on 12 March 1388 has information about destruction of pagan cult objects inVilnius and provided legal grounds for establishment of theVilnius Cathedral.[1] On 19 April 1389, Pope Urban VI recognized the status of Lithuania as a Roman Catholic state.[22] Lithuania was the last state inEurope to beChristianized.[1]
Samogitia was the last ethnicregion of Lithuania to become Christianized in 1413, following the defeat of theTeutonic Order in theBattle of Grunwald and thePeace of Thorn and its subsequent return to the Lithuanian control.[23] In November 1413, Vytautas himself sailedNeman River andDubysa, reached the environs ofBetygala, where he baptised the first groups ofSamogitians.[24] In 1416, the construction of eight first parochial churches was started. The Diocese of Samogitia was established on 23 October 1417 andMatthias of Trakai became the firstBishop of Samogitia.[25] Thecathedral was built inMedininkai around 1464.[23]
EthnicLithuanian nobles were the main converts to Catholicism, but paganism remained strong among the peasantry. Pagan customs prevailed for a long time among the common people of Lithuania and were covertly practiced. There had been no persecution of priests and adherents of the old faith. However, by the 17th century, following theCounter-Reformation (1545–1648), Roman Catholicism had essentially taken precedence over earlier pagan beliefs.
The conversion and its political implications had lasting repercussions for the history of Lithuania. As the majority of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania outsideLithuania proper was Orthodox and the elite gradually converted toRoman Catholicism, religious tensions increased. Some of the OrthodoxGediminids left Lithuania forMuscovy, where they gave rise to such families as theGalitzine and theTroubetzkoy. The Orthodox population of present-dayUkraine and easternBelarus often sympathized with the rulers of Muscovy, who portrayed themselves as the champions of Orthodoxy. These feelings contributed to such reverses as theBattle of Vedrosha, which crippled the Grand Duchy and undermined its position as a dominant power inEastern Europe.
On the other hand, the conversion to Roman Catholicism facilitated Lithuania's integration into the cultural sphere ofCentral Europe and paved the way to the political alliance of Lithuania and Poland, finalized as theUnion of Lublin in 1569.
Jogaila, the son of Algirdas and a Russian mother, considered contracting a dynastic marriage with a Russian princess and converting to Orthodoxy