Holy Trinity ensemble in Vilnius. From the crypt to daily life

Representatives of a number of different social groups were buried in the crypts of the Holy Trinity Church in Vilnius: influential laypeople, members of brotherhoods operating at the church, and Basilian monks and sisters (↑). During the research done in 2015–2016, the remains of mostly monks were found under the great altar (↑). Thus, we will discuss how these Basilian monks died and were buried in the church of the Holy Trinity.

The monks buried in the crypts only partially reflect the composition of the local Basilian community. The Basilians, like the representatives of other monastic orders, constantly moved from monastery to monastery and were very active. Many of them lived in various monastic centers of the Lithuanian province of this order for a number of years. As a rule, only brothers without priestly ordination or priests who were the superiors of small residences stayed in one monastic community for a longer time. So the Basilian community in Vilnius was dynamic and ever-changing. In the first stage of its existence, when the future bishop and the first martyr of the Greek Catholic Church Josaphat Kuntsevych served as an archimandrite (1614‒1617) (↑), the community grew quickly and for some time up to 60 monks resided in the monastery.¹Pavlo Krečiunas, Vasilis Parasiukas, “Švč. Trejybės unitų vienuolynas ir Bazilijonų ordino steigimas”, in: Vadimas Adadurovas, et al., Kultūrų kryžkelė: Vilniaus Švč. Trejybės šventovė ir vienuolynas, moksl. red. Alfredas Bumblauskas, Salvijus Kulevičius, Ihoris Skočiliasas, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2017, p. 83; same: Павло Кречун, Василь Парасюк, “Святотроїцький унійний монастир і реформа 1617 року”, in: Вадим Ададуров, et al., На перехресті культур. Монастир і храм Пресвятої Трійці у Вільнюсі (series: Київське християнство, т. 16), наук. ред. Альфредас Бумблаускас, Сальвіюс Кулявічюс, Ігор Скочиляс, Львів: Український католицький університет, 2019, с. 121. Later these monks were scattered to other monasteries of the province. After the crises of the middle of the 17th the beginning of the 18th centuries, the life of the monastery stabilized and, through the following decades, approximately 20 fathers, brothers, and novices regularly lived there. Thus, in the acts of visitation of 1737 it is recorded that at that time there were 24 monks here: 13 fathers, two brothers, and nine novices.²ÖNB Wien, SN 3847, l. 158‒159. Thus, considering the community’s high mobility, only some of them died within the walls of this monastery.

On the other hand, research of the crypts has shown that many more Basilians were buried in Vilnius than are mentioned in the written sources. Regarding the circumstances of the deaths of these monks, these sources provide only meagre details. At best, the place of death of a particular monk is indicated in the catalogues of the deceased monks of the province. For example, we know that in 1747 Fr. January Babinsky passed into eternity in Vilnius, though no details are given about the circumstances of his death.³VUB, Rankraščių skyrius, f. 3, b. 1837, l. 64. Even in the monastery’s diary (1758‒1891), the deaths of the monks are rarely mentioned in greater detail. After the death of Fr. Andrzej Iwanowski, the monk who wrote the chronicle noted: “31 May of this year [1765] in this monastery died the priest Andrzej Iwanowski, the confessor of this monastery, approximately 50 [years old], a virtuous and exemplary monk; he was to his very death of clear mind. I myself performed the last anointing for him, and I myself buried him the day after tomorrow, at Saturday.”⁴LVIA, f. 1178, ap. 1, b. 374, l. 13v.

The inscriptions on dozens of coffins allow us to connect the remains found in the crypt with Basilians who once lived in this monastery. Thanks to them, we can discover the first and last names of the monk, data about his age, the years spent in the monastery, positions held, etc.

From these inscriptions we learn that, for instance, Fr. Maximilianus Zawadzki (ca. 1700/1701‒1748), found his place of eternal rest here. He was the former superior of the Vilnius monastery, who studied theology at the Pontifical Greek College in Rome (1725–1730) and who, to the very end of his life, held the office of the consultor of the Lithuanian Basilian province.⁵ЛННБ ВР, ф. 3, спр. МВ-332, арк. 1зв.; ÖNB Wien, SN 3847, l. 166; Dmytro Blažejovskyj, Byzantine Kyivan Rite Students in Pontifical Colleges, and in Seminaries, Universities and Institutes of Central and Western Europe (1576–1983) (series: Analecta OSBM, сер. II, ч. I, т. 43), Roma: PP. Basiliani, 1984, p. 85. Also buried in the church was Brother Teodor Ordziewicz (Hordziewicz; ca. 1689‒1766), who became a monk in Vilnius in 1736 and spent here the three last decades of his life. He did not become a priest and, possibly, lived the whole time in this very Vilnius monastery, working as the gardener (hortulanus) [1].⁶ЛННБ ВР, ф. 3, спр. МВ-332, арк. 5зв.; ÖNB Wien, SN 3847, l. 158v. As we see, the significance of these monks for this monastic center and the whole Basilian order was very varied. They occupied very distinct positions in the monastery’s hierarchy. Regardless of that, both monks found a place for their eternal rest in the sacred space of the church (↑) (↑).

Martynas Jakulis