Lithuanian Drama

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The Orthodox Christian News Service

Submitted December 10, 2003

Lithuanian Drama

Unlike the Catholicism the Orthodox teaching was not forced on the medieval Lithuanians with violence and compulsion. So both Orthodox and Catholics honour holy martyrs Anthony, John and Eustaphy executed by the pagans in Vilnius in about 1347 (feast April 14/27) as patron saints of Lithuania. On the order of Great Prince Olgerd three Lithuanians who served in the prince retinue and belonged to the Orthodox Church were hanged on an oak for the refusal to eat meat at a feast during fast time.

Stories about the three martyrs were the basis of drama "Holy fast", staged in 1732 by Vilnius University students. Historian Darius Baronas, who published the Latin original with a parallel Lithuanian translation, notes that in the opinion of the majority of researchers the drama was written by Jesuit Jan Joseph Obronpalsky (Darius Baronas, Trys Vilniaus kankiniai: istorija ir gyvenimas, Vilnius: Aidai, 2000).

The drama belongs to the student performances about the struggle of the Lithuanians against the Teutonic Order of Crusaders. In the intricate plot the church hagiographic data are intermingled with dramaturgic cliches in the barocco style, historical facts and folk legends.

The idea mentioned in this drama that a western knight cannot be defeated by conventional arms can be found in various chronicles of crusades in the 13th - 14th centuries. For example, in "Prussian Chronicle" catholic priest Peter from Dusburg puts a myth about invincibility of the Teutonic Order in the mouth of a Baltic elder, who visited a crusader castle and saw the knights without armour: "You should know that knight brethren are people like we are; they have broad and soft bellies like you see ours; their arms, food and other things are very similar to ours, but they have one difference: they have a custom that will certainly destroy us. Every night they get up from their bed and gather together in a chapel as well as many times during the day and they express their honour to their God, which we do not do. That is why they will definitely defeat us in the war". And since he visited the crusaders in fast time and saw them eat cabbage unknown at that time by the Baltic people he added: "Besides they eat grass like war-horses or mules; who then could fight back those who easily find their food in the field?" (Peter from Dusburg. Prussian Chronicle. M.: Ladomir, 1997, p. 84).

In the play other themes typical for the Lithuanian history and folklore are also mentioned: the crusaders deliberately destroy the crops which results in mass starvation of peaceful populace; gods and people demand for avengement; captive enemies are sacrificed to idols; nobody recognizes Kieystut dressed in a white cloak with a black cross. The scene when Anthony, John and Eustaphy acquire parts of holy relics also reflects historical facts of the 13th-14th centuries: among the war booty captured by crusaders in the Holy Land and Byzantium the miracle working relics were the most precious articles.

The history of the Orthodoxy in Lithuania is an inseparable part of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Exposing the violence and intolerance, villainies of the Teutonic Order and pagan superstitions, the Church through Alexander Nevsky taught that "God is not found in human strength but in truth". The spiritual link between Vilnius martyrs and the Holy Russia is testified by the fact that in 1376 Constantinople Patriarch Philopheus sent the cross with the relics of Sts. Anthony, John and Eustaphy to Saint Sergius of Radonezh. The oldest image of the Lithuanian saints was embroidered on the big sakkos of Moscow Metropolitan Photius (1414-1417) between the Royal couples of the Byzantine empire and Great Principality of Moscow. In 1915 - 1946 the holy relics of the Heavenly Patrons of Lithuania stayed in Moscow. The text [http://www.rusk.ru/st.php?idar=1001009] is the first publication of drama "Holy Fast" in English. Special thanks to Inga Deidule,Lithuania, for assistance in the preparation of the publication.

Yurie Klitzenko