Early life and education Rolandas Makrickas was born on 31 January 1972 in
Biržai,
Lithuania, the youngest of five children. He entered
Kaunas Priest Seminary in 1990, the second year it operated, and beginning in 1991 lived at the
St. Casimir Lithuanian College in Rome while studying philosophy and theology at the
Pontifical Gregorian University. where he joined in the Church's delivery of social services and managed a construction project. In that role he participated in the reorganization of the Vatican's financial and administrative functions. The pope left a meeting to offer him the post in a brief hallway conversation. On 23 February 2023, the pope made him titular bishop of
Tolentino with the personal title of archbishop. Makrickas received his episcopal consecration on 15 April from Cardinal
Pietro Parolin, with co-consecrators Cardinal
Stanisław Ryłko, Archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore, and Archbishop
Edgar Peña Parra. On 20 March 2024, ending Makrickas' role as commissioner and redefining the role of the Basilica's canons, Pope Francis announced on 6 October 2024 that he planned to make him a cardinal on 8 December, a date that was later changed to 7 December. On 7 December 2024, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, assigning him as a member of the order of cardinal deacons the deaconry of
Sant'Eustachio. In February 2025, Makrickas visited Lithuania for the first time after becoming a cardinal and together with two other Lithuanian cardinals
Audrys Bačkis and
Sigitas Tamkevičius held a
mass in the
Vilnius Cathedral on 16 February, commemorating the
Independence Day of Lithuania. He was named in the Testament of Pope Francis as having been given the instructions for Francis' burial at Santa Maria Maggiore. He participated as a
cardinal elector in the
2025 papal conclave that elected
Pope Leo XIV. He succeeded as archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore upon the 80th birthday of his predecessor, Cardinal Ryłko, on 4 July 2025. ==See also==