The Religion in Lithuania is predominantly Catholic, reflecting Lithuania's history, with a strong presence from other minorities. According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,[1]
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79% of Lithuanians belong to the Roman Catholic Church.[3] Roman Catholicism has claimed the adherance of the majority of Lithunia since the Christianization of Lithuania in the 14th and 15th centuries.[4] Lithuania kept her Catholic identity under the Russian Empire and later under the Soviet Union when some Catholic priests led the resistance against the Communist regime, which is commemerated in the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, a shrine to the anti-communist resistance. Political activity has continued after independence against socialism and liberalism, especially in ethical questions.
Eastern Orthodoxy claims 4.1 % of the population, mainly from the Russian minority.[3]
Protestants makes up 0.8% of the population,[3] with 0.56% belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania.
Lutheranism in Lithuania dates back to the 16th century, when it came mainly from the neighbouring German controlled areas of Livonia and East Prussia. A Synod in Vilnius united the church in 1557. The parish network covered nearly all of The Grand Duchy with district centers in Vilnius, Kedainai, Biržai, Slucke, Kojdanove and Zabludove later Izabeline. Small Protestant communities are dispersed throughout the northern and western parts of the country.
The majority of Prussian Lithuanians living in East Prussia and in Memelland[5] were members of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union. Most were resettled in the West Germany after World War II along with the ethnic German inhabitants.
Since 1945 Lutheran Protestantism in Lithuania has declined.
Various Protestant churches have established missions in Lithuania since 1990, including the United Methodists,[6] the Baptist Union,[7] the Mennonites,[8] and World Venture.[9]
In Lithuania, Islam has a long history unlike many other northern European countries. The medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth allowed Muslims, notably the Crimean Tatars to settle in the lands in the south.[10] Some of people from those lands were moved into ethnically Lithuanian lands, now the current Republic of Lithuania, mainly under rule of Grand Duke Vytautas. The Tatars, now referred to as Lithuanian Tatars, lost their language over time and now speak Lithuanian as natives; however, they have strongly maintained their Muslim faith.
The Lithuanian Jewish community has roots that go back to before the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Lithuania was historically home to a large Jewish community and an important center of Jewish scholarship and culture from the 18th century until the community was almost entirely eliminated during the Holocaust. Before World War II, the Lithuanian Jewish population numbered some 160,000, about 7% of the total population.[11] Vilnius alone had a Jewish community of nearly 100,000, about 45% of the city's total population[12] with over 110 synagogues and 10 yeshivot in the city.[13]
There are still communities of Jews of Lithuanian descent around the world, especially in Israel, the United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Australia.
According to the 2001 census, there were 1,272 adherents of Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism.[14] About 4,000 Jews were counted in Lithuania during the 2005 census.[15]
According to a Karaite tradition several hundred Crimean Karaites were invited to Lithuania by Grand Duke Vytautas to settle in Trakai ca. 1397. A small community remains in Trakai today, which has preserved the Turkic Karaim language and distinctive customs, such as its traditional dish called "kibinai", a sort of meat pastry, and its houses with three windows, one for God, one for the family, and one for Grand Duke Vytautas.
A neo-pagan Romuva, established in 1967, attempts to reconstruct ancient Lithuanian mythology.[16]
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