Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius - a European poet laureate
Among the Academy graduates who wrote verse in Latin Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius (1578—1640) was known throughout Europe. He was a professor of rhetoric, philosophy and theology. Critics called him the Sarmatian Horace, and his "Lyricorum libri tres" was translated into many European languages and saw about fifty editions altogether. In 1625, Pope Urban VIII crowned Sarbievius with laurels for his poetry.
Lyricorum libri tres by Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius
The book of poems Lyricorum libri tres (Three Books of Lyrics, Köln, 1625) earned Sarbievius the names of ‘the Horace of Sarmatia’ and ‘the Christian Horace’. Soon afterwards, revised editions were published in Vilnius, Antwerp, Leiden, Rome, Milan, Dijon, Paris, Wrocław, Venice, Cambridge, London, etc. In the 17th century alone this book saw at least 34 publications (and over 50 in the 18th-19th century). It was translated into English (1646), Polish (1682) and other languages and was admired not only in Catholic universities but also in Oxford where it was read instead of Horace. The title page for his poetry book edition in Antwerp (in the famous printing house of Planten and Moret) in 1632 was designed by the great Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. The engraving with minor changes was repeated in the edition of 1634.
Romantic pilgrim
One of the most prominent graduates of the University was the poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855). He saw his task in awakening Polish national consciousness and initiating the Age of Romanticism in Polish literature. After the Society of Philomats was abolished in 1823, as one of its leaders, Adam Mickiewicz was exiled from Lithuania and later emigrated to Western Europe, where he became an active participant in social and political activities of the Polish immigrants, declaring the idea, quite widespread in Europe, of Polish messianism (the mission of the exceptional Polish nation – a martyr nation). He lived in Paris for a long time and was the first foreigner to chair a department in College de France, a higher education institution in France. It was while in Istanbul he wrote the Books of the Pilgrims, which have been called "Mickiewicz's Homilies". He died in Constantinople. The influence of Adam Mickiewicz is felt in the work of many Lithuanian poets of the late 19th – early 20th century.
Poezye by Adam Mickiewicz
In 1818 Mickiewicz published his first poem Winter of a City, dedicated to Vilnius. In 1822 Zawadzki printing house in Vilnius published the first volume of romantic ballads by Adam Mickiewicz Poezye. In 1823 the second volume was published including a historical poetic drama “Gražina”. Poezye manifested a new of romanticism in poetry.
Historical poems by Adam Mickiewicz
The most famous historical epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz is Pan Tadeusz, which begins with the invocation: "Oh Lithuania, my fatherland, thou art like good health." It is generally accepted that in Mickiewicz's time Lithuania still carried a strong association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and that Mickiewicz used it in a political rather than an ethnic sense. Beside Pan Tadeusz and other historical poem Konrad Wallenrod, noteworthy is the long poem Grażyna, describing the exploits of a Lithuanian chieftaincy against the Teutonic Knights. All three poems were of great importance to the national revival movement in Lithuania.
Adam Mickiewicz in the University of Vilnius
There are many memorial signs of Adam Mickiewicz in the University of Vilnius. There is a symbolic tomb of Adam Mickiewicz built in the church of St. John for the centennial anniversary of the great poet in 1899. In 1919 a courtyard of the University was given a name of Adam Mickiewicz. On the centennial anniversary of the death of the great poet a memorial plaque was opened in 1955 in the courtyard, with an inscription about his studies in the University of Vilnius in 1815-1819.
Memory of Adam Mickiewicz in Lithuania
There are many streets named after Adam Mickiewicz in Lithuanian cities and towns (Vilnius, Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Šalčininkai, Šiauliai and other). Several schools, gymnasiums and a library also have a name of the great poet. There are also monuments to Adam Mickiewicz in Vilnius, Šalčininkai and Burbiškės. Adam Mickiewicz lived and lectured in Kaunas in 1819-1823, therefore there is Adam Mickiewicz’s valley in the city.
Memorial places of Adam Mickiewicz in Vilnius
There are many memorial places of Adam Mickiewicz in Vilnius. In Bernardinu Street there still is the house (built in the 17th c.) in which the great poet lived in 1822 and was writing a poem Grażyna. Already in the second half of the 19th century a memorial museum of Mickiewicz was established in the house (restored in 1955). Another important place is a cell in the former Basilian monastery that was turned into a prison in the time of the Russian Empire. Arrested members of the Philomath society (Adam Mickiewicz among them) were held in a cell which is now known as a Conrad’s cell, because Adam Mickiewicz “imprisoned” there his hero Conrad from the poetic drama Dziady (Forefathers' Eve). Today there’s a small “Conrad’s cell” museum. A monument to Adam Mickiewicz was designed in Vilnius already in the 19th century; however it was built only in 1984.
Memory of Adam Mickiewicz in the World and in Space
There are numbers of streets, squares and monuments to Adam Mickiewicz in Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine. His museums are established in Vilnius, Navahrudak, Warsaw, Paris and Istanbul (a city of his death). The name of the great poet is even commemorated in the space: a large crater in Mercury (23.6 N, 103.1 W) and an asteroid discovered in 1979 (5889 Mickiewicz) are named after Adam Mickiewicz.
Czesław Miłosz – a student of the University of Stephanus Bathoreus
Czesław Miłosz was born on 30 June 1911 in Szetejnie/Šateiniai, a small town in rural Lithuania which he later called „the very heart of Lithuania“. The family decided to settle in then Polish Wilno in 1921, where Czesław Miłosz finished gymnasium in 1929 and began studies of Polish literature and finally law at the University of Stephanus Bathoreus. In April 1931 he cofounded the Polish avant-garde literary group Żagary (a polonized Lithuanian word meaning Brushwood). In 1933 Miłosz published his first volume of poetry, and in 1934 he received the degree of master of law from the University and set out on a yearlong fellowship in Paris. In 1936 Miłosz was made a commentator on literature for Radio Wilno, but he was dismissed after a year for his “leftist” views. At the outbreak of World War II, after the seizure of Vilnius by the Soviets in June 1940, he moved to Warsaw where he stayed.
Czesław Miłosz’s works
In 1945 Miłosz published his novel Rescue (Ocalenie, 1945) and started his Polish diplomatic service in New York, and from 1947 he was the cultural attaché in Washington. During this time he continued to publish poetry and translations in Poland. In 1950 he became the first secretary in the Polish embassy in Paris and in 1951 Miłosz requested political asylum in France. He was writing for the émigré journal Kultūra and in 1953 published The Captive Mind (Zniewolony umysł), still considered one of the most probing analyses of the allures of power for intellectuals ever written. Later publications include an autobiographical novel Isa Valley (Dolina Issy, 1955), a book about Lithuania Native Europe (Rodzinna Europa, 1958), and many others. In 1960 Miłosz moved to Berkeley and worked at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Nobel Prize winner
On 9 October 1980 Czesław Miłosz received the Nobel Prize for the entirety of his work.
Czesław Miłosz’s return to Vilnius
Czesław Miłosz treated Lithuania as a separate cultural and political formation from that of Poland and called himself “the last citizen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania”. In 1990–1991, he defended Lithuania’s interests in the press and everywhere else and became its honorary citizen of Vilnius. The poet visited Vilnius in 1992, after 52 years. In 1995 he was awarded with order of Grand Duke Gediminas. The last time Czesław Miłosz visited Vilnius in 2000 together with other Nobel Prize winners Wisława Szymborska and Günter Grass. He died in 2004 in Cracow and was buried there.
