Antanas Vaičius (5 April 1926 – 25 November 2008) was a Lithuanian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

, who served as an

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

(1982–1989) and Diocesan Bishop (1989–2001) of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Telšiai The Roman Catholic Diocese of Telšiai () is a suffragan Latin diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan of Kaunas, one of two in Lithuania. History The diocese was established on 4 April 1926 on territory split off from th ...

Early years

Born in Geidučiai, present day

Skuodas District Municipality Skuodas District Municipality is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It is the only territory whose Council is using the Samogitian language Samogitian ( or sometimes , or ; ), is an Eastern Baltic language spoken primarily in Samogiti ...

, in a farmers family with four sisters and one brother, Antanas Vaičius during 1934–1943 studied in Šačiai, Mosėdis and Skuodas schools and joined to the

Telšiai Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius Priest Seminary Telšiai Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius Priest Seminary () is a Roman Catholic seminary in Telšiai, Lithuania. It was founded in 1927 by Justinas Staugaitis, the first Bishop of Diocese of Telšiai . Mukienė, DanutėTelšių Vyskupo kunigų semi ...

, where studied until 1946, when this seminary was closed by Soviets. From 1946 to 1951 he studied in the

Kaunas Priest Seminary Kaunas Priest Seminary () is the largest seminary in Lithuania serving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. It is part of the Faculty of Theology of Vytautas Magnus University. Its current rector is Aurelijus Žukauskas. As of 2007, the semi ...

. During his studies, he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

to the priesthood for the

Diocese of Telšiai In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

by bishop Kazimieras Paltarokas on 24 September 1950.

Pastoral and diocesan work

Father Vaičius worked as an assistant priest, and after – as a parish priest in a various parishes of the Diocese of Telšiai:

Plungė Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė''; ) is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plunge is the capital of the Plungė District Municipality which has 33,251 inhabitants (2022). Two parts of the city are separated by the Babrungas River and ...

Žygaičiai Žygaičiai is a small town in Tauragė County, in western 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 Balti ...

Klaipėda Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...

Salantai Salantai () is a small town in Lithuania. It is located in the Klaipėda County, Kretinga district. Etymology Salantai is named after the Salantas River, which runs through the town. History Salantai area was known to be inhabited since the B ...

, Lauko Soda,

Akmenė Akmenė () is a city in northern Lithuania. Following the discovery of large reserves of limestone and clay in the region, in 1947 construction work began on one of the largest cement production complexes in the Baltic States. Nearby, a new town ...

Viekšniai Viekšniai ( Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Vėikšnē'', ''Vekshne'', ) is a list of cities in Lithuania, town in the Mažeikiai district municipality, Lithuania. It is located south-east of Mažeikiai. The etymology of the town's name pro ...

and

Telšiai Telšiai (; Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Telšē'') is a city in Lithuania with about 21,499 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on the shores of Lake Mastis. Telšiai is one of the ol ...

. On 3 October 1975 he was elected as a Vicar Capitluar for the vacant Diocese of Telšiai and in 1982 – for the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Klaipėda. On 5 July 1982,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed him

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Sullectum and

of the

. Bishop Vaičius received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

on 25 July 1982 in the Cathedral Basilica of apostles St. Peter and St. Paul of Kaunas from Bishop Liudas Povilonis, with Bishops Romualdas Krikšciunas and Vincentas Sladkevičius as co-consecrators. During 1988–1993 he served as the vice-president of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference. Bishop Vaičius retired on 26 May 2001, after reaching the age limit of 75 years old and lived in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaičius, Antanas 1926 births 2008 deaths People from Skuodas District Municipality 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Lithuania Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Lithuania