Rinktiniai Raštai IV: Krikščionybė Lietuvoje

Zenonas Ivinskis (1908–1971) was among the most distinguished Lithuanian historians of the twentieth century, trained at Kaunas and European universities, and a leading authority on Lithuanian medieval and early modern history. After fleeing Soviet occupation, he continued scholarship in displaced-person camps and later in Germany and Rome, where he remained affiliated with the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Sciences and Arts. His Rinktiniai Raštai represent the systematic preservation of his life's scholarly output by the diaspora community he helped lead intellectually.

This fourth volume, dedicated to Christianity in Lithuania, is of exceptional importance for understanding the inseparability of Catholic faith and Lithuanian national identity across six centuries. Topics range from the Christianization of Lithuania under Mindaugas and the founding of the Samogitian (Žemaičių) diocese in 1417, through the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation, to the towering figures of Bishop Merkelis Giedraitis and Bishop Motiejus Valančius, whose roles in defending Lithuanian language and culture against Russification made them national heroes. The volume also addresses Marian devotion, the cult of Saint Casimir, and the role of the Jesuit and Franciscan orders in Lithuanian education. Published in the 1987 jubilee year marking 600 years of Lithuanian Christianity, this work was both a scholarly contribution and a diaspora act of witness to a national and religious heritage suppressed by Soviet rule.

Diaspora scholarly institution (Lietuvių Katalikų Mokslo Akademija, Rome) publishing the collected works of a major Lithuanian historian in exile, sustained by community philanthropy (Motušis bequest), to preserve Lithuanian Catholic intellectual heritage during Soviet occupation of the homeland.