Kārlis Gailītis (3 March 1936 –

Sabile Sabile (; ) is a town in Talsi Municipality, in the Courland region of Latvia. Sabile was first mentioned in chronicles in 1253. From the 14th century to the 16th century, it was a site of a castle of the Livonian Order and a village near the cas ...

, 22 November 1992) was a Latvian Lutheran archbishop. He was the archbishop of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (, or LELB) is a Lutheranism, Lutheran Protestant church in Latvia. Latvia's Lutheran heritage dates back to the Protestant Reformation, Reformation. Both the Nazi and communist regimes persecuted the c ...

, from 1989 to 1992, when he died in a car accident.

Life and career

Gailītis was born in a family of teachers. He studied at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, from 1971 to 1976. In September 1976, he was ordained a pastor. He started working afterwards at the Luther Church, in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, where he would serve until his election as archbishop. He worked as Secretary of the Consistory from 1981. In 1986, he obtained a master's degree in theology. He was a professor of comparative religion in the Theological Seminary for several years. Gailītis was involved in the "revival and renewal" in the final years of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He was elected archbishop at the XIV Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, at 12 April 1989, in

. He witnessed the final years of the

as Latvia struggled for independence in 1991. In April 1992, he was reelected archbishop, at the XV Synod. He died in a car accident on 22 November 1992.Kārlis Gailītis Biography (Latvian)
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References

External links

Kārlis Gailītis Biography (Latvian)
1936 births 1992 deaths Latvian Lutheran bishops Lutheran archbishops of Riga 20th-century Lutheran archbishops {{Lutheran-bishop-stub