Coronation and the Christianization of Lithuania
On July 6, Lithuanians celebrate the coronation of the one and only king of Lithuania, Mindaugas. He was crowned king, according to historian Liudas Jovaiša, because the title was an important step for a new member of the Christian community of the time. Mindaugas was the first Lithuanian ruler to be baptized in the Cahtolic rite, in 1250 or 1251. It is known that on July 17, 1251, Pope Innocent IV issued a papal bull proclaiming Lithuania a Kingdom and the state was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. Mindaugas and his wife Morta were crowned at some time during the summer of 1253, and the Kingdom of Lithuania, formally a Christian state, was established. According to a historical source, Mindaugas had agreed to receive the baptism and relinquish control over some lands in western Lithuania, for which he was to receive a crown in return.
However, even after nominally becoming a Catholic, King Mindaugas did not cease sacrificing to his own gods. Despite the ruling family’s baptism, Lithuania had not become a truly Christian state, since there were no fruitful efforts to convert its population; Lithuanians and Samogitians (Žemaičiai) stood firmly for their ancestral religion.On 19 April 1389, Pope Urban VI recognized the status of Lithuania as a Roman Catholic state. Samogitia was the last ethnic region of Lithuania to become Christianized in 1413.
The succession of the monarchy was never established because the king’s heirs did not embrace Western Christianity. Mindaugas was killed with his sons Ruklis and Rupeikis. He had received permission from Pope Alexander IV to have one of his sons crowned king, and it was likely to be one of his younger sons. However, Mindaugas’ successors vacillated between Roman and Orthodox Christianity. For later rulers Gediminas and Algirdas, the retention of paganism provided a useful diplomatic tool and weapon, allowing them to use promises of conversion as a means of preserving their power and independence.
In 1349, Lithuanian ruler Kęstutis started negotiations with Pope Clement VI for conversion and had been promised royal crowns for himself and his sons. The intermediary in the negotiations, Polish King Casimir III, made an unexpected assault on Volhynia and Brest in October, 1349, that ruined Kęstutis’ plan. During the Polish-Lithuanian war for Volhynia, King Louis I of Hungary offered a peace agreement to Kęstutis on 15 August 1351, according to which Kęstutis was obligated to accept Christianity and provide the Kingdom of Hungary with military aid, in exchange for the royal crown. Kęstutis had no intentions to abide by the agreement and ran away.
The final attempt to Christianize Lithuania was made by Jogaila. Jogaila’s Russian mother urged him to marry Sofia, daughter of Prince Dmitri of Moscow, who required him first to convert to Orthodoxy and to make Lithuania a fief of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. That option was unlikely to halt the crusades against Lithuania by the Teutonic Order. Jogaila chose therefore to accept a Polish proposal to become a Catholic and marry Queen Jadwiga of Poland. On these and other terms, on 14 August 1385, at the castle of Krėva, Jogaila agreed to adopt Christianity, signing the Act of Krėva.
Jogaila returned to Lithuania on February 1387. The baptism of nobles and their peasants was at first carried out in the capital Vilnius and its environs. The nobility and some peasants in Aukštaitija were baptized in spring, followed by the rest of the Lithuanian nobility. The parishes were established in ethnic Lithuania and the new Vilnius Cathedral was built in 1387 on the site of a demolished pagan temple. On 19 April 1389, Pope Urban VI recognized the status of Lithuania as a Roman Catholic state.
