George Matulaitis Journal

143 1918 In July of 1914, Matulaitis left Fribourg for Lithuania, where he had been invited to conduct a retreat for priests at Marijampole. In August war broke out and he found himself stranded, unable to return to Switzerland. He could get only as far as Warsaw, so he stayed there doing pastoral and charitable work and giving retreats. Warsaw was occupied by the Germans in the summer of 1915. In July, Archbishop Alexander Kakowski allowed Matulaitis to take over an abandoned Camaldolese monastery at Bielany, a suburb of Warsaw. Under Matulaitis’s leadership, the Polish Marians set up their own monastery and novitiate. During the war years, they did pastoral work and looked after about two hundred war orphans. In the spring of 1918, Matulaitis got permission to go to Marijampole, since he was anxious to revive the Marian monastery there. He left Warsaw by train on March 1, stopping in the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas on the way to Marijampole. This first entry in his Journal since the summer of 1914 describes his activities from March to December of 1918. 1 After taking care of various matters that concerned our Congregation, I could now travel to Marijampole to establish our monastery there. 2 I had written to His Excellency, Bishop Karevi ius 3 of Kaunas that I wanted to return to Lithuania. He provided me with a permit from the German authorities, something that was difficult to get at that time. I left Warsaw on March 1, 1918. Although I had been told a great deal about the horrors and hard- ships of such a journey, traveling to Vilnius was not so bad. I rode third class and the railway car was almost empty. There were 1 This entry is undated. It narrates events from March 1 to the end of December. Part of it may have been written in Marijampole where Matulaitis arrived March 14 and remained until November 29. 2 It had been closed by the Russian czarist government in 1905, but when the government fell in 1917, the Lithuanian Marians in Fribourg began to return. A few were already there by the time Matulaitis arrived. 3 Pranciskus Karevi ius (1861-1945): Bishop of Kaunas (1914-1926). In 1926 he resigned, was made Titular Archbishop, and joined the Marians. He lived and worked at the monastery in Marijampole until his death.