St. Nicholas Church, Semeliškės
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St. Nicholas Church is an
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
church in
Semeliškės Semeliškės is a town in Elektrėnai municipality, Vilnius County, east Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian census of 2011, the town has a population of 580 people. The town has a church of Catholics and Orthodox church of St. Nicolas. Its al ...
,
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
, built in 1895, belonging to the
Russian Orthodox Diocese of Lithuania The Diocese of Vilnius and Lithuania (; ), also known as the Lithuanian Orthodox Church (; ), is a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church whose territory comprises the country of Lithuania, established in 1839 after the Synod of Polotsk when the ...
. After the suppression of the
January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
, the Tsarist government financed the construction of a dozen of Orthodox churches in
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
region, in order to stress the Russian rule in this land. The Orthodox peasants from the Semeliškės village asked the Vilnius Orthodox diocese to build a church in their village, too; but they got a negative response due to the small dimension of the village. However, after 1890 a nobleman from
Trakai Trakai (; see Trakai#Names and etymology, names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capi ...
, Alexey Peiker, agreed to support financially the construction of an Orthodox church in Semeliškės. The church was ready in 1895. It was located next to the main village square, which was the most prestigious of the possible locations. The building was consecrated on March 16, 1896. At this moment, the Semeliškės Orthodox parish consisted of about 500 people. This number subsequently grew to 765 in 1909. The church, like many others in Lithuania, was closed in 1915, when the parish priest was forced to join the Russian army as a chaplain. New Orthodox clergymen arrived in Semeliškės only in 1923, sent by the new Orthodox metropolitan of Vilnius, Elevferiy (Bogoyavlensky). The church stopped functioning again in 1939. After the war, the number of Orthodox Christians in Semeliškės started to fall gradually. Although the church was registered in a Soviet government in 1947 as an existing parish, it was closed again in 1954 due to the small number of parishioners. Up to today, the services are held in Semeliškės only during the major Orthodox festivals.


Sources

* G. Shlevis, Православные храмы Литвы, Свято-Духов Монастыр, Vilnius 2006, {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Nicholas Church, Semeliskes Eastern Orthodox churches in Lithuania Churches completed in 1895 19th-century churches in Lithuania Buildings and structures in Vilnius County