March 18, 2013

A Visit to the Chapel

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė today visited the Lithuanian chapel that stands in the grottoes of St. Peter's Basilica.

Mr. Irene and I saw the chapel during our honeymoon.
 

Vatican City, June 1989. The "Virgine lituana" above the altar resembles the Madonna icon that hangs at the Aušros Vartai, or "Gates of Dawn," in Vilnius. I'll post a photo of the Vilnius site soon.

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Vatican City, June 1989. Mindaugas was the Lithuanian king who converted to Christianity in 1250 or 1251. Lithuania, however, remained a pagan nation until the fourteenth century. It was the last Western European country to adopt Christianity.

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