Lietuvos Bažnyčios IV tomas: Panevėžio vyskupija / Churches of Lithuania Vol. IV: The Diocese of Panevėžys
1984
Šaltasis Karas ir Sąjūdis
Cold War & Sąjūdis · 1980–1990
Published in 1984 during the Cold War & Sąjūdis period.
This is Volume IV of Bronius Kviklys's monumental diaspora reference series documenting the churches of Lithuania, covering the Diocese of Panevėžys. Published in Chicago in 1984 during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, it preserves detailed historical, architectural, and ecclesiastical records of parishes and chapels that the occupying regime sought to suppress or destroy. The volume includes photographs, parish histories, maps, biographical entries of deceased priests, and a comprehensive table of contents spanning over 530 pages — making it an irreplaceable reference for Lithuanian Catholic heritage and diaspora memory.
What It Is
Bronius Kviklys's 'Lietuvos Bažnyčios' series stands as one of the most ambitious documentary projects of the Lithuanian diaspora — a multi-volume encyclopedic effort to catalog every Catholic church, chapel, and parish in Lithuania while the country was under Soviet rule and such records were suppressed or inaccessible. Volume IV, covering the Diocese of Panevėžys, documents not only architectural and liturgical history but also the human stories of parishes under occupation, wartime destruction, and the fate of clergy forced into exile. The book was published in the Year of St. Casimir (1984), a symbolically charged moment for Lithuanian Catholic identity globally.
Why It Matters
Published in Chicago in 1984 while Lithuania was under Soviet occupation, this volume is part of a landmark diaspora effort to preserve the complete record of Lithuanian Catholic church life that the Soviet regime was actively suppressing. It documents hundreds of parishes, their histories, architecture, clergy, and community life in the Diocese of Panevėžys — information that could not be published inside Lithuania at the time. This copy's author signature and personal dedication connect it to the living networks of priests and patrons who made such publications possible, and its presence in the Žiburio archive in Detroit reflects the deep ties between Chicago and Detroit Lithuanian communities in sustaining this cultural infrastructure.
Bronius Kviklys appears in 3 works in this archive. Connected to Amerikos Lietuvių Bibliotekos Leidykla / Lithuanian Library Press, Inc., Chicago through shared publications. Chicago, Illinois, USA — origin of 19 works in the archive.