<< The Lithuanian Word     << Booksmugglers     << Back    


Booksmugglers: Povilas Jakubenas

 

 

Povilas JakubenasPOVILAS 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