Category:Lithuania

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Lithuania is a country in Eastern Europe.

Overview

Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Lithuania

Judaism is attested in Lithuania since 8th century, and in spite of periods of expulsion and persecution maintained a very strong and influential presence in Lithuanian society until the Holocaust. Vilnius, with half of its population Jewish, was one the major centers of Jewish life in the world (widely known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania").

Christianity spread in Lithuania only in the 14th-15th centuries. St. Casimir (Kazimieras, 1458–1484) was the patron saint of Lithuania. After the Reformation, Lithuania emerged as the only Catholic State in the Baltic, and such remained also under Soviet rule.

Lithuania hosts one of the oldest Muslim communities in Western and Northern Europe, as groups of Tartars settled there in the Middle Ages and integrated with the local population while maintaining their religion.

Contemporary times

Today, the majority of Lithuanian population (70-80%) is Roman Catholic, with significant Protestant (1%) and Russian Orthodox minorities (4%).

Islam is the religion of the Lithuanian Tartars. The Lithuanian Jewish population, who before WW2 numbered some 160,000 (or about 7%), was almost entirely exterminated during the Holocaust; only a few hundred Jews now live in Lithuania.

In Depth

• Lithuanian Scholarship / Lithuanian Scholars -- survey of works by Lithuanian Scholars / biographies of Lithuanian Scholars

• Lithuanian Fiction / Lithuanian Authors -- survey of works by Lithuanian Authors / biographies of Lithuanian Authors

See also: Lithuanian -- Lithuanian language

External links

• Wikipedia / Wikipedia (Religion in Lithuania)