Julijans Vaivods studied at the
Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy, Russia. He was ordained
priest for the
Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mohilev by Bishop
Jan Cieplak on 7 April 1918 in St. Petersburg. He was initially sent back to Latgale to serve as a parish priest and school chaplain. He came under the jurisdiction of the newly restored Diocese of Riga on 22 September 1918. He was sent to serve as a parish priest in
Courland (Kurzeme) in 1925. He later came under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Liepāja when it was created in 1937. While serving as the
vicar general of that diocese, he was elevated to
monsignor on 4 July 1949. Msgr. Vaivods was imprisoned by the
Soviet authorities from 1958 to 1960. In 1962 he became vicar general of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Riga. In 1964 he received a papal invitation to travel to Rome to attend the third session of the
Second Vatican Council. On 18 November 1964 he was consecrated
titular bishop of Macriana Maior by
Paolo Cardinal Marella in Rome. Cardinal Marella was assisted by Latvian bishops-in-exile
Jāzeps Rancāns and
Boļeslavs Sloskāns. Bishop Vaivods returned to Rome in 1965 to participate in the fourth session of the Second Vatican Council. He died in 1990 and was buried at the
Basilica of the Assumption in
Aglona. In 2018, it was revealed that on 28 July 1948, the
Special Department of the Soviet State Security Ministry recruited Vaivods as an agent under the codename 'Omega'. He remained a collaborator with the
KGB through the Soviet period. ==References==