Maironis
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy datesTemplate:Infobox writer Maironis (born Jonas Mačiulis, Template:Langx; Template:OldStyleDate – 28 June 1932) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and the greatest and most-known Lithuanian poet, especially of the period of the Lithuanian press ban.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was called the Bard of Lithuanian National Revival ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).Template:Sfn Maironis was active in public life.Template:Sfn However, the Lithuanian literary historian Juozas Brazaitis writes that Maironis was not.Template:Sfn
In his poetry, he expressed the national aspirations of the Lithuanian National Revival and was highly influential in Lithuanian society and poetry.Template:Sfn The Maironian school in Lithuanian literature was named after him.Template:Sfn
LifeEdit
Early yearsEdit
Jonas Mačiulis was born on Template:OldStyleDate in Template:Ill manor,Template:Sfn Template:Ill, Template:Ill, in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was almost wholly annexed by the Russian Empire during the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Maironis' parents were free peasants who maintained close relations with the polonized Lithuanian nobility.Template:Sfn Such a social environment formed the basis of Maironis' personality, leading to his deep religiosity and loyalty to tradition, free from atheistic or liberal influences.Template:Sfn Socially, Maironis was uninvolved in the tensions between nobles and peasants, the rich and the poor, and did not become a representative of either side.Template:Sfn Maironis was raised with a firm grounding in Lithuanian rural culture and was open to influence of any culture provided that it did not contradict Maironis' love for his land, his people, its past and traditions.Template:Sfn
Ecclesiastical and academic careerEdit
During 1873–1883, Maironis was learning in the gymnasium of Kaunas.Template:Sfn In sixth class, he began writing verses in Polish.Template:Sfn In 1883, he entered the Kiev University to study literature.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He only studied there for a single semester.Template:Sfn He left the university after the lectures did not satisfy his hopes and the students' stances towards religion were strange to him, so, Maironis returned to Kaunas in 1884 and entered Kaunas Priest Seminary.Template:Sfn Maironis studied in the seminary until 1888.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the seminary, Lithuanian culture and the use of the Lithuanian language were encouraged by the priest, then Auxiliary bishop, Antanas Baranauskas.Template:Sfn This influenced Maironis to decide in favour of Lithuanianness and to create art in the Lithuanian language, thus leading to him being important in the Lithuanian National Revival.Template:Sfn
In 1888-1892, Maironis studied in the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy, where he mostly studied moral theology and for his work {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, he received a Master's degree.Template:Sfn In 1891, Maironis was ordained a priest.Template:Sfn From 1892 to 1894, he was professor in Kaunas Priest Seminary, where he taught the dogmatic theology and catechism.Template:Sfn
In Saint PetersburgEdit
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From 1894 to 1909, he was Theology Professor in Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy and was made the academic inspector in 1900.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn For a few years, he was also the prefect and spiritual father.Template:Sfn In 1903, he received the degree of Doctor of Theology.Template:Sfn In the Academy, the Department of Sociology was established at the insistence of Maironis.Template:Sfn Around 1900, Maironis was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Language Rights' Restoration Union (Template:Langx).Template:Sfn
Maironis' presence in academia had indirect influence on Lithuanian culture in Saint Petersburg, as the presence of a Lithuanian poet in the functions of an inspector raised patriotic pride amongst the Lithuanian students and allowed the entry of more Lithuanians into professorship.Template:Sfn Moreover, this allowed Maironis to authoritatively support the works of Lithuanians in the Imperial Russian capital, for example, the Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvių laikraštis of Template:Ill.Template:Sfn This newspaper was the first legally-printed Lithuanian newspaper in the Russian Empire following the end of Lithuanian press ban in 1904.Template:Sfn In 1905, Maironis was a member of the Commission formed by the Minister of Education of the Russian Empire to prepare a Lithuanian language program for Lithuanian schools.Template:Sfn Together with others, he prepared a draft program of the Christian Democratic Party for the Great Seimas of Vilnius of 1905.Template:Sfn
In LithuaniaEdit
From 1908, Maironis was member of the Lithuanian Scientific Society in Vilnius.Template:Sfn In 1909, he was invited as rector of the Kaunas Priest Seminary.Template:Sfn In his first public speech, he spoke in Lithuanian, breaking with the tradition of speaking either in Latin or Polish.Template:Sfn This was a breakthrough moment for Lithuanianness in the seminary.Template:Sfn Outside of the seminary, Maironis was important to show that Lithuanians had their own intellectual high ecclesiastical figures, as Maironis was Mogilev's honorary canon since 1902 and later also the prelate of the Samogitian Capitula from 1912.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He aided Roman Catholic Lithuanian cultural organisations by allowing them to establish their headquarters in the former Template:Interlanguage link, which Maironis had bought.Template:Sfn Maironis remained the seminary's rector until his death in 1932, except when the seminary was closed during World War I.Template:Sfn Maironis left Kaunas only during short breaks during summer when he went to Palanga or when the seminary was closed during World War I.Template:Sfn
World War IEdit
During the First World War, Maironis lived in several places such as Krekenava, Upytė and others.Template:Sfn He was persuaded to travel with the Lithuanian delegation to the Conference of Bern in 1917, which was one of the Lithuanian conferences during World War I.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
InterwarEdit
Maironis was rejoicing at the re-establishment of Lithuanian independence, but he was disappointed with certain social ills he witnessed with the rebellious wave following independence.Template:Sfn He disapproved of the Interwar Template:Interlanguage link as it was contrary to his social conservativism.Template:Sfn In this respect, the Tautininkai were closer to him than the Christian Democrats.Template:Sfn His political leanings were partly also because of personal relations.Template:Sfn While avoiding the public spotlight, Maironis preferred to frequent the intellectual artist circles, where poetry, song and music predominated.Template:Sfn
In 1922, Maironis was elected the Professor of Moral Theology in the Faculty of Theology-Philosophy of the newly-founded University of Lithuania.Template:Sfn For a short time, he taught courses on general and Lithuanian literature.Template:Sfn The students were impressed by the clarity and simplicity of the teaching, looking at the substance of the question rather than the rhetoric.Template:Sfn Later that year, Maironis was elected the honorary professor of the University of Lithuania on 15 December 1922.Template:Sfn A decade later, the same institution gave him the degree of honorary doctor of literature on 29 January 1932.Template:Sfn
WorksEdit
Maironis wrote numerous poems. Some of them are contained in his most famous collection of poems, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (The Voices of Spring). Maironis's works also include: poems Lietuva (1888), Tarp skausmų į garbę (1893), Znad Biruty (1904), Jaunoji Lietuva (1907), Raseinių Magdė (1909), Mūsų vargai (1913), three historical dramas: Kęstučio mirtis (1921), Vytautas pas kryžiuočius (1925), Didysis Vytautas - Karalius (1930), as well as works from the fields of theology, history (Apsakymai apie Lietuvos praeiga, 1886), sociology, literature and journalistic texts. Znad Biruty is the only surviving work by Maironis written in Polish.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Death and legacyEdit
He died in Kaunas in 1932, aged 69.Template:Sfn He was buried in a tomb monument constructed outside the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica.Template:Sfn He personally chose the sentence on his tomb ("{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", which means "How sorry I am for that white grandfather ...") from his poem {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn His former house in Kaunas is now the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum.<ref>Lithuanian literature Museum</ref>
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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