Religion

A conversation with the Luschas family

The Knights of Lithuania have surpassed their 100 year anniversary, but its membership keeps the organization young and vibrant. Take the Luschas family – active members of the K of L – their creative spirit and cando attitude is making Lithuania a household name throughout the United States. Elaine and …

Read More »

Monadnock Chorus embraces the Lithuanian Choral Tradition

By ILONA W. KWIECIEN. “I would like to thank The Monadnock Chorus for this beautiful concert. Thank you for honoring our country, for representing our culture. Thank You for bringing us together and exposing our wonderful Lithuanian heritage! It is a gift to us!” – extolled Dalia Shilas, one of …

Read More »

The Jesuits in Vilnius

By Antanas Saulaitis, S.J. VILNIUS HAS BEEN THE center of Lithuania, both Grand Duchy and Replic, for seven centuries. For two of those centuries, Vilnius was the hub of a wheel of Jesuit education and ministry from Prussia to Russia, Estonia to northern Poland. The Jesuit heritage in the capital …

Read More »

The Lithuanian Chapel in St. Peter S Basilica

By K. Paul Žygas A TRIP TO ROME WITHOUT VISITING ST. Peter’s Basilica would be like going to a birthday party but missing out on the cake. This great church, one of the Eternal City’s principal monuments, is continuously open, even during repairs and restorations, and admission is free. But …

Read More »

Exploring the Kėdainiai Territory

Text and photos by Val Ramonis   KĖDAINIAI IS A CITY I HAD HEARD AND READ MUCH ABOUT, but never had the opportunity to visit during any of my earliertrips to Lithuania. While in Vilnius during the Millennium celebrations at the beginningof July, I wanted to get away from the …

Read More »

Pagan Lithuania

By Gloria Kivytaitė O’Brien Lithuanians were some of the last people in Europe to embrace Christianity. Among the reasons for this was their deep attachment to their old beliefs and the ruthlessness of the “baptizers.” AS THE CRUSADES IN THE HOLY LAND raged on, the Roman Catholic popes, in the …

Read More »

A Pennsylvania Lithuanian Parish Celebrates 100 Years

by John Majikas Lately, there has been considerable talk and worry about the closing of the Our Lady of Vilnius (Aušros Vartų) church in Manhattan, N.Y., and other Lithuanian churches in the United States. Churches that early Lithuanian immigrants built with their sweat and hardearned money a hundred or more …

Read More »

Divine Mercy and the Vilnius Connection

BY ALGIS GINTAUTAS Today the devotion to the Divine Mercy is widespread among Catholics across the globe, thanks to a humble, frail nun who became God’s chosen messenger to spread His word through a diary she wrote and an image she instructed to be painted in Vilnius. DURING HIS LONG …

Read More »

“Little Lithuania, Usa” Schuylkill County, PA

BY JOHN J. CHERNOSKI (ČERNIAUSKAS) “Little Lithuania, Usa” Schuylkill County, PA THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES THERE ARE NUMEROUS places where a particular ethnic group has long been identified with an area, and names such as “Little Italy,” “Germantown,” “Chinatown,” etc. have become a part of the local fabric. I decided …

Read More »

Kunigas Ateina Kalėdot’: Recollections About an On Old Lithuanian Parish and the Christmas-Time Custom That Lithuanian Immigrants Had Brought With Them From the Old Country

By Gloria O’Brien-Kivytaitė. KUNIGAS ATEINA KALĖDOT’ Recollections about an on old Lithuanian parish and the Christmas-time custom that Lithuanian immigrants had brought with them from the Old Country. DURING the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s Brooklyn’s Apreiškimo Parapija (Annunciation Parish) was wellknown as a Lithuanian stronghold. As a “national parish,” without …

Read More »