sanctuary in
Prussia Early contacts with Christianity Lithuanians' contacts with the Christian religion predated the establishment of the
Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century. The first known record of
the name Lithuania (
Litua), recorded in the
Annals of Quedlinburg in 1009, relates to the mission led by
Bruno of Querfurt, who baptised several rulers of the
Yotvingians, a nearby
Baltic tribe. Nonetheless Bruno did not reach
Lithuania proper. Lithuanians had more active contacts with the
Kievan Rus' and subsequent
Eastern Slavic states, which had adopted
Eastern Orthodox Christianity following the
Christianization of Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. From the 12th century onwards, Orthodox missions reached
Latgale and
Nalšia, directed from
Novgorod,
Pskov, and
Polotsk. By the end of that century, Catholic missionaries began arriving in the Baltic territories, with
Saint Meinhard, the
Bishop of Livonia, as a pioneer. 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 in
Aukštaitija, though much less so in
Samogitia. The influence of Orthodox Christianity on
pagan Lithuanian culture is evidenced in about one-third of present-day Lithuanian surnames which are constructed from
baptismal names are
Old Church Slavonic in origin. In addition, the Lithuanian words for "church", "baptism", "Christmas" and "
fast" are classed as loanwords from Ruthenian rather than Polish.
Baptism of Mindaugas The emergence of a monastic state of the
Livonian Order around the Lithuanian borders made it rather urgent to choose a state religion. The first Lithuanian Grand Duke to adopt
Western Christianity was
Mindaugas, although his nephew and rival
Tautvilas had done that earlier, in 1250. The first translations of Catholic
prayers from
German were made during his reign and have been known since. , Mindaugas' baptism and coronation In 1249, Tautvilas' ally
Daniel of Galicia attacked Navahradak, and in 1250, another ally of Tautvilas, the Livonian Order, organized a major raid against
Nalšia land and Mindaugas' domains in
Lithuania 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 the
Archbishop 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, 1251
Pope Innocent IV issued a
papal bull proclaiming Lithuania a
Kingdom and the state was placed under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Rome. Mindaugas and his wife
Morta were crowned at some time during the summer of 1253, and the
Kingdom of Lithuania, formally a Christian state, was established. Even after nominally becoming a Catholic, King Mindaugas did not cease sacrificing to his own gods. 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 and
Samogitians stood firmly for
their ancestral religion. Some of this might be attributed to the
Golden Horde tumanbashi Burundaj's campaign in 1259 and 1260, which caused destruction in Lithuania proper and
Nalšia. in
Strasbourg, portraying 15 European nations' path towards Christianity. Lithuania presented as the last figure.
Vacillation between East and West Mindaugas' successors did not express enough interest in following in his footsteps. There were decades of vacillation between the Latin and the Orthodox options. "For
Gediminas and
Algirdas, 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". Grand Duke Algirdas had pursued an option of "dynamic balance". Throughout his reign, he teased both
Avignon and
Constantinople with the prospects of a conversion; several unsuccessful attempts were made to negotiate the conversion of Lithuania. To avoid further clashes with the
Teutonic Order, in 1349, Lithuanian co-ruler
Kęstutis started the negotiations with Pope
Clement 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 King
Casimir III, made an unexpected assault on
Volhynia and
Brest in October 1349 that ruined Kęstutis' plan. During the Polish-Lithuanian war for Volhynia, King
Louis I of Hungary offered a peace agreement to Kęstutis on 15 August 1351, according to which Kęstutis obliged himself to accept Christianity and provide the
Kingdom of Hungary with military aid, in exchange of the royal crown. Kęstutis confirmed the agreement by performing a pagan ritual to convince the other side. In fact, Kęstutis had no intentions to abide the agreement and ran away on his way to
Buda. By the 14th century, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania had emerged as a successor to
Kievan Rus in the western part of its dominions. 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 Orthodox
Rurikid aristocracy of Eastern Europe. As a result, some Lithuanian rulers were baptised into Eastern Orthodoxy either as children (
Švitrigaila) or adults. The first one was
Vaišelga, son and heir of
Mindaugas, who took monastic vows at an Orthodox monastery in Lavrashev near
Novgorodok and later established a convent there.
Christianization by Jogaila and Vytautas The final attempt to Christianize Lithuania was made by
Jogaila. Jogaila's Russian mother urged him to marry Sofia, daughter of
Prince Dmitri of Moscow, who required him first to convert to Orthodoxy and to make Lithuania a fief of the
Grand Duchy of Moscow. That option, however, was unrealistic 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 marry
Jadwiga of Poland. On these and other terms, on 14 August 1385, at the castle of
Krėva, Jogaila agreed to adopt Christianity, signing the
Act of Krėva. Jogaila was duly baptised at the
Wawel Cathedral in
Kraków on 15 February 1386 and became Władysław II Jagiełło, the
King of Poland. The royal baptism was followed by the conversion of most of Jogaila's court and knights, as well as Jogaila's brothers
Karigaila,
Vygantas,
Švitrigaila and cousin
Vytautas. Jogaila sent Dobrogost, Bishop of
Poznań, as ambassador to Pope
Urban VI with a petition for the erection of an
episcopal see at Vilnius and the appointment of
Andrzej Jastrzębiec to fill it. " by
Jan Matejko Jogaila returned to Lithuania in February 1387. The baptism of nobles and their peasants was at first carried out in the capital
Vilnius and its environs. The nobility and some peasants in
Aukštaitija were baptized in spring, followed by the rest of the Lithuanian nobility. The parishes were established in ethnic Lithuania and the new
Vilnius Cathedral was built in 1387 on the site of a demolished pagan temple. According to the information of disputed accuracy provided by
Jan Długosz, the first
parochial churches were built in Lithuanian
pagan towns
Vilkmergė,
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, killed
grass snakes and other snakes that were regarded as divine guardians of households at the time. The
papal bull issued by
Pope Urban VI on 12 March 1388 has information about destruction of pagan cult objects in
Vilnius and provided legal grounds for establishment of the
Vilnius Cathedral. On 19 April 1389, Pope Urban VI recognized the status of Lithuania as a Roman Catholic state. Lithuania was the last state in
Europe to be
Christianized. In November 1413, Vytautas himself sailed
Neman River and
Dubysa, reached the environs of
Betygala, where he baptised the first groups of
Samogitians. In 1416, the construction of eight first parochial churches was started. The Diocese of Samogitia was established on 23 October 1417 and
Matthias of Trakai became the first
Bishop of Samogitia. The
cathedral was built in
Medininkai around 1464. == Aftermath ==