They kept safe the heart of Lithuania

President of Lithuania visits Putnam

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

EAST PUTNAM --- Quietly tucked away in East Putnam, the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary were the keepers of Lithuania’s history and dream of freedom.

When the Soviets invaded Lithuania in 1939 they suppressed all that was Lithuania --- books, newspapers, religion, language --- everything.

Ah, but …

All that was Lithuania was still very much alive in the people’s hearts AND with the Immaculate Conception Center Convent and Retreat Center, the Lithuanian diaspora.

Gitanas Nauseda, president of the Republic of Lithuania, visited the center Sept. 23 to begin a partnership and to carry back home some of the documents and books at the heart of Lithuania. Speaking in the center’s library, he said “This is evidence that God shows us the way.”

One Lithuanian official said the Sisters and Nauseda signed a memorandum of cooperation, a donation protocol. There will be more exchanges. “This is a symbolic donation, but it’s just the start,” she said.

Nauseda said he was “impressed by the cultural heritage which was collected here in this place.” Some very old rare books having to do with ”the national awakening of Lithuania” will go to regional museums in Lithuania. He estimated 10 books, including old rare books, maybe more, will go to museums. They will also be bringing back a Lithuanian newspaper which he called “very rare and very valuable, a cultural asset.” The first newspaper was published in 1883 he said. “There are not so many copies in the world, maybe up to 10, not more,” he said.

He said other interesting historical books, mainly from the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century will be going home to Lithuania, “to present it to the public in Lithuania.”

Nauseda attended the U.N. General Assembly and then traveled to East Putnam. Accompanying him was the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service, his own security and his advisers. The Connecticut State Police were also at the center.

Dr. Jolanta Karpaviciene, Chief Adviser to the President - Education, Science and Culture Group, planned the trip.

The Community kept the idea of independence, the freedom of Lithuania, safe, she said, after the Soviet takeover. They kept safe “this idea that Lithuania must be free again.” The Community worked with the younger generation “because it was very important to continue knowledge about Lithuania --- the language, the culture and so on AND this idea that Lithuania must be free again,” Karpaviciene said.

They’ve been doing it for a long time. In 1936 the Marian Fathers in Thompson asked the Lithuanian Immaculate Conception community to send Sisters to help them with their ministry. Five Sisters came and later acquired their property in Putnam.

According to Karpaviciene, a priest, Pranciškus Juras, began collecting significant Lithuanian cultural artifacts and donated it to the Community around 1960. That became the foundation of the Lithuanian American Cultural Archives (ALKA). Established in Putnam in 1965, the archives house a vast collection that includes books, periodicals, paintings, works of folk and applied arts, and archival materials.

According to the Community’s history, ‘When in 1990 Lithuania regained its independence, the Sisters were instrumental in assisting the Catholic Church in Lithuania and their own religious community to restructure their communal presence and resume public activity. To this day, the Sisters continue to share their resources and their varied American experience with their community and Church in their homeland.”

 “I wanted to see what is the essence of this center,” Nauseda said.

The essence is Lithuania’s freedom, its heart.

Captions:

Gitanas Nauseda, president of the Republic of Lithuania, looks at a gift from the Immaculate Conception community’s .” leader Sister Igne Marijosius as she tells a joke, in Lithuanian. Nauseda in the library. Linda Lemmon photos.

Mirga Girnius, director of the Lithuanian Cultural Archive in Putnam (ALKA).  The woman in the blue and white dress is Eva Stonkeviciene, director of the National Museums in Lithuania.