The easternmost and northernmost Catholic European University

The University of Vilnius was founded in 1579. That was rather late compared to the emergence of West European universities or even the foundation of the oldest Central European universities – Prague (1347), Krakow (1364), Vienna (1365), and Buda (1389). On the other hand, the universities of Bratislava (1467), Königsberg (1544) and Olomouc (1573) emerged just a little earlier than the University of Vilnius. Therefore, it is often claimed that the University of Vilnius is the oldest university in Central Eastern Europe. This idea became popular in 1979 when the University of Vilnius was celebrating its 400th anniversary. At the time, Lithuania belonged to the Soviet Union and the borders of the Soviet Union were identified with the borders of Eastern Europe. Having in mind the Soviet ideology, the primacy of the University of Vilnius over the University of Moscow had a distinct political and ideological shade.

However, today we would not be quite right repeating the statement that the University of Vilnius was the oldest in Eastern Europe. After the collapse of the Soviet empire, information long known to researchers about its constituent historical regions was revealed. It is obvious today that Central Europe or, to be more exact, Central Eastern Europe is discovering itself anew. Since the Middle-Ages this Catholic region also included the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. If we consider Eastern Europe to be the region upon which the Western culture was imposed hastily and very late, we could maintain that the University of Vilnius is not the oldest university of Eastern Europe but one of the earliest founded in Central Eastern Europe. If we compared the dates of the foundation of the universities of Central Europe and the dates when these countries adopted Christianity, it would become evident that the foundation of the University of Vilnius came the soonest – just two hundred years after Lithuania’s Christianisation.

There is also another aspect of the historical significance of the old University of Vilnius. In the 16th century University of Vilnius took the role of the easternmost European university for two centuries. We could continue this thought by claiming that The University of Vilnius seemed to have carried out its mandate from the Jesuits expressed by their vice-provincial Franciscus Sunier on the foundation of the University: ‘It must not be forgotten that from here we can open the doors to Moscow and from there via the Tatars we could reach even China. Besides, we cannot forget Sweden and Livonia, which could also be reached, and we have to pray to God to direct His gracious eye upon those people”. Not everything was realistic in those majestic plans. However graduates of the University had spread its ideas in China (Andreas Rudamina), through missions in the regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (St. Andreas Bobola), or by writing prominent books as Meletius Smotricius. The Jesuits managed to establish the easternmost and northernmost Catholic European university. This is perhaps the greatest significance of the old Jesuit University of Vilnius.