NEAL PEASE (Milwaukee, WI, U.S.A.)

GOD'S PATRIOT: JERZY MATULEWICZ AS BIBHOP OF VILNA, 1918-25*

The Roman Catholic Church declared Jerzy Matulewicz blessed on 28 June 1987 as it observed the six-hundredth anniver- sary of the baptism of his native Lithuania. Pope John Paul II pronounced the formula of beatification at St. Peter's basilica in Rome before an assemblage including throngs of Lithuanian pilgrims. That same day, in the Lithuanian capital of Vilna,' where Matulewicz had resided as diocesan bishop from 1918 to 1925, six masses of celebration took place quietly in the shadow of Soviet power, two of them in churches ministering to the city's still sizable Polish minority. The Church of Poland took particu- lar note of the occasion, for the newly designated servant of God had spent most of his life and pursued the greater part of his var- ied ecclesiastical career as scholar, pastor, monastic, adminis- trator, diplomat, and hierarch in the Polish lands. Poland's epis- copate and leading Catholic commentators expressed pride in their country's close ties with Matulewicz and his homeland, stressing that his exaltation would strengthen the bonds of Polish and Lithuanian concord.2 2 At the same time, most of these encomia carried at least a hint of apology for the trials Matulewicz had endured as Ordinary of Vilna. Despite a holiness acknowledged even by his enemies, the bishop had been disdained by his largely Polish clergy and flock and ultimately hounded from his diocese as persona_non grata by the government of the Second Republic of Poland. More than six decades after his death, the figure of Bishop Matulewicz has

'" Note: This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 22nd National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Washington D. C., October 1990 1. Of course, the city is known as Vilnius in Luthuanian, Wilno in Polish. 2. In Tygodnik Powszechny (Krak6w), 19 July 1987, see "Na beatifykacjv abpa. Jerzego Matulewicza: list paterski Episkopatu Polski," and Fr. Adam Boniecki, "Wielki dzien Kogciola litewskiego." 70

emerged from obscurity to assume a role in a renewed discussion of the historical relations of Poles and Lithuanians, a debate that concerns the present and future as well as the past. The ordeal of Jerzy Matulewicz began in the final months of World War I as the Vatican addressed the delicate task of filling the long vacant bishopric of Vilna. The largest and one of the most populous Roman Catholic dioceses within the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, this ecclesiastical jurisdiction had been carved out of lands seized by Russia during the eighteenth-century partitions of Poland, embracing the dis- tricts of Nowogr6dek, Gr6dno, and Bialystok, as well as Vilna, the episcopal see. The severe rule of St. Petersburg had weighed heavily on the Roman church in the region, especially after the failed uprising of 1863-64, and the diocese had lacked a bishop since 1907. By March 1918, with Russia in the throes of defeat and revolution and the appearance of nominally independent Polish and Lithuanian states under German sponsorship, the Holy See elected to begin rebuilding the churches that had borne the yoke of the tsars. This included the choice of a new hierarch for Vilna, the functioning capital of the fledgling Lithuamian polity. More than in most sees, the selection of a bishop for Vilna de- manded fine judgment. The area lay under German occupation, so the nominee would require the imprimatur of Berlin. Moreover, the diocese was wildly polyglot, with a predominantly Polish and Belorussian countryside and the city Vilna itself, which was mainly Polish aside from its considerable Jewry. In fact, Lithuanians comprised a distinct minority in this historical heartland of Lithuania. Political factors further complicated the heterogeneity of the region. For centuries united by citizenship in the old Respublica, Lithuanian and Pole lately had developed separate and opposing nationalisms, and each laid claim to Vilna and its environs. In view of the complexities of the assignment, Rome's attention soon focused on Father Matulewicz, the virtual incarnation of the cosmopolitan traditions of the bygone "Commonwealth of Two Nations." Born near Mariampol (Marijampole) in 1871 as Matulaitis, the son of Lithuanian peasants, the future bishop was orphaned at age ten and raised by an uncle in a Polish milieu. He adopted Polish language and culture, and as a semi.naria-n polo- nized his name; even so, he remained Lithuanian by conviction. Ordained in 1898, Matulewicz entered Polish ecclesiastical life and gained a reputation for exceptional piety and pastoral excel-