News from Liaudė: unique historical materials found in the Polish Library in Vandžiogala

The readers from Poland and Lithuania keep sending various historical materials to the Polish library in Vandžiogala. The documents concern the town, the parish church and even the area of Kaunas, where there used to live or continue living the Polish parents and great-grandparents of those readers.

Among the sent papers there were announcements of the tzarist government spread and stuck on the fences in 1863, which ordered how to behave. Original letters of bishop Motiejus Valančius dated on the same period of time were also received. It is interesting that a great part of those letters are addressed not to the whole diocese but for distinct parish churches, in which the bishop praises the community for living in sobriety or scolds for drinking, encourages the people to build and re-build churches.

„When reading those letters, which include ideas applicable also in the today’s world, following the bishop’s example let us pray to the Holy Spirit with similar words, when mediocrity and pessimism tempt us, when we are being encouraged to not work, not create, not fight for a better Earthly of Heavenly future”, says Ryszard Jankowski, the president of the Vandžiogala branch of the The Association of Poles in Lithuania.

Valančius’ biographer, Vytautas Merkys, concludes: „The underlined religious sense of sobriety means saving the human souls from perdition and hell, a road which leads through drunkenness”.

The question arises: from which pulpit the virtues preached by bishop Motiejus Valančius should be spread in order that they are heard and effective?

Source: vandziogala.eu