Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius

Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius (Polish: Jerzy Matulewicz; 13 April 1871 - 27 January 1927) was a Latin Church Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Vilnius from late 1918 until his resignation in 1925. Matulaitis was also the founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and the Handmaids of Jesus in the Eucharist; he served as the Superior-General of the Marian Fathers from 1911 until his death. He worked in secret to revive the Marian Fathers after the Russian authorities suppressed all religious orders and he even relinquished his teaching position to better dedicate himself to that secret revival. He was a noted teacher and spiritual director who set up other branches of the order in places such as Switzerland and the United States far from Russian authorities. Matulaitis' cause for sainthood opened in the 1950s before he was titled as Venerable in 1982. Pope John Paul II beatified the late bishop on 28 June 1987 in Saint Peter's Basilica and referred to the bishop as a "man of God's heart". Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius was born on 13 April 1871 to the poor farmers Andrius and Uršulė as the youngest of eight children; he was baptized at the parish church (that the Marian Order managed) in Marijampolė. He learnt about the faith in catechism classes at that church from Father Jurgis Cešnas. He was orphaned later with the death of his father in 1874 and his mother in 1881. His mother taught him their native tongue though he learnt Russian in school as he was taught in that language. His elder brother was John and his elder sister was Emilia who looked after him when their parents died. In 1904 he developed a weakness in his right arm and leg that prevented him from working with his brother on the farm and which kept him from classes at the school and forced him to walk on crutches for a while. His illness was sometime later diagnosed as tuberculosis of the bone which he suffered with for the rest of his life.