A Lithuanian archbishop who was murdered with a lethal injection after 16 years in prisons and labour camps will become the first Catholic martyr from the country’s communist era to be declared Blessed later this month.
The beatification ceremony for Archbishop Teofilius Matulionis, who died in 1962, is planned for June 25 in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. About 30,000 people were expected to attend.
“Besides being our first Soviet-era martyr recognised by the Universal Church, he’ll also be the first Lithuanian beatified on native soil,” said Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, president of Lithuania’s bishops’ conference.
