POVILAS
JAKUBENAS, (1871-1953), Presbyterian minister and theologian, born in
Vaitkunai near Birzai, on April 11, 1871. He studied theology at the
Universities of Tartu in Estonia and Erlangen in Germany and was ordained in
Vilnius in 1900. He was appointed assistant pastor to the Birzai community
and, in addition to his parochial duties, was actively involved in civic
affairs. Jakubenas was instrumental in the establishment of a secondary
school at Birzai and in the establishment of a publishing house. He wrote
and edited various religious brochures and almanacs and was active in
agrarian circles, organizing discussion groups and cooperatives. Jakubenas
spent World War I in Russia working for the Central Lithuanian Committee in
St. Petersburg. In 1918 he returned to Lithuania and the following year was
elected General Superintendent of the Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed
Church. During this time he did not neglect his scholastic duties and taught
religion, Latin and German at the gymnasium in Birzai. In 1925 he organized
the Department of Protestant Theology at the University of Kaunas and was
appointed decent of church history and theology. He was elevated to the rank
of professor in 1929 and held this post until the closing of the department
in 1935. During this tenure he represented Lithuania on numerous occasions
at international religious and scholastic congresses. He was awarded an
honorary doctorate in theology by the University of Prague. Rev. Jakubenas
was a prolific scholar and writer, his major work being the three volume Church
Histories (Baznycios Istorijos). Some of his other studies are: Nachrichten
uber die hussitische Bewegung in Polen und Litauen, 1899; Kunigaikstis
Jonusas Radvilas, 1927; Gustavas II Adolfas, 1933; Abraomas
Kulva, 1933. After World War II he emigrated to Switzerland, where he
died in Wessen on May 30, 1953.
Literature:
ENCYCLOPEDIA LITUANICA I-VI, 1970-1978, Boston
