Father Stanislovas’ House in Juodeikiai

Father Stanislovas’ House in Juodeikiai

In 1959, with the help of locals, a small house near St John the Baptist Church in Juodeikiai was built for the monk Algirdas Mykolas Dobrovolskis – Father Stanislovas (1918-2005), a priest who was persecuted by the Soviet Special Service from 1957 to 1960. The humble, 12 square metre house only accommodated a board bed, books and a kerosene stove. The charismatic monk, who did much for the church and the people of Juodeikiai, was sent away from Juodeikiai in 1960 to be a priest elsewhere because of his disloyalty to the Soviet authorities. In around 1975, the house was moved from the churchyard of Juodeikiai Church to the outskirts of the village and used as a dairy buying-point. In 2006 the Juodeikiai community brought it back to the churchyard, reconstructed it, built an exposition to Father Stanislovas in it and mounted a memorial tablet on the house. In 2007 a roofed pole with the Pensive Christ and St Mary the Merciful (by Julius Vaupšas) was built for him near the house, and the top of it is decorated by a cross made by Father Stanislovas himself and preserved by the locals. In addition to the famous monk's letters, sermons, and other exhibits, the exposition of the house displays eight sculptures of saints carved by J. Vaupšas, which during the parish festival are placed in the two brick chapels in the front of the churchyard of Fr. Stanislavs' churchyard, which were built by J. Vaupšas in 1959 and which he named For the Tears of the Mothers and For the Troubles of the Fathers.

GPS:56.242069, 23.220958

Juodeikiai, Joniškis district