Catholic church of St. Stephen (Vilnius)

One of the first stone temples in the outskirts of Vilna was built in 1600 in the Rudnitsky suburb, where victims of epidemics and famine were buried. The initiator of the construction of the church was a Jesuit priest Shimon Vysotsky, who organized the collection of money among the townspeople. In 1604, magnificent celebrations of the canonization of St. Casimir were held in the church. There was a school at the temple. In 1612, the townspeople Andrian and Emartsian Wezhbitsky used their money to build a stone building for 24 patients at the place of the wooden infirmary at the church and set up three chapels. During the war of 1655, the church suffered from fire. Destroyed at the same time the hospital was rebuilt only in 1673 .

In 1715, the Vilna Bishop of Constanta Kazimierz Brzostovsky transferred the church to the Rohites' monastery established by him. The elder brother of the priest Karol Lyutkevich became the rector of the temple. In 1717, the chapel of the Holy Roch for monks was added to the church, the church was renewed, and the infirmary was expanded.

In 1752, the church was taken over by the sisters of the congregation of the life of Mary ( mariavitok ). With the permission of Pope Clement XII , the monastery of the mariavit sisters (whose activity consisted mainly in the conversion of Jews to Christianity) was built on the site of the infirmary back in 1737 . Its founder and fundator was the rector of the church, the priest Stefan Turchinovich (died 1773 ). In 1739, the Bishop of Vilnius Michal Jan Zenkevich approved the congregation charter prepared by Turchinovic. Pope Benedict XIV , wanting to encourage the religious zeal of the nuns, sent them in 1752 a special breve confirming the statute. In the first thirty years of the Mariah activities in Vilna, over 400 neophytes were drawn, mainly girls from Jewish families. At the monastery there was a school for girls from poor families. The monastery eventually became empty, as the nuns moved to Belarus , and was abolished. However, in 1770, Angel Potemkinova, with three more sisters in Rome, received the blessing of the Pope for the renewal of the convent in Vilna. The Vilna Bishop of Ignacy Jakub Masalsky confirmed the statute of the mariavit sisters and the monastery was renewed in 1788 . The buildings of the church and the monastery were significantly affected by fire and destruction during the shelling of Vilna by Russian artillery during the 1794 uprising . Restoration involved mariavitki. The restoration work accelerated the gift of Tsar Peter I , during his stay in Vilnius, who donated 3,000 silver rubles.

Two new single-storey buildings of the monastery and offices for orphans were built (architect Grabowski; 1798 ). The reconstruction of the church in 1801 - 1806 was led by architect Pietro Rossi . A bell tower was erected at the gates adjacent to the cemetery church. Repairs were carried out later, especially thorough after the war of 1812 and in 1820 . In the middle of the XIX century, the church belonged to the parish of All Saints, which included the adjacent Ponary, Burbishki, Belaya Vaka, Porubanek, Cherny Bor and other villages.

By imperial decree December 12, 1864 the monastery was abolished. The nuns were transferred to the Benedictine monastery at the church of St. Catherine . The buildings of the monastery were converted into prisons. The temple was assigned to the Church of All Saints ^[2] . The main entrance to the church was in prison, so he was immured. During the construction of a new fence in prison in 1914, the chapel of St. Roch was heavily damaged, in which there was a sculpture of a saint human-sized. At the beginning of the 20th century, the church was in the neighborhood of industrial premises being built. In 1926, a stone-cutting workshop was established in the buildings of the former monastery, and the cemetery turned into a storage area for building materials. In the former monastery was still a prison.

During World War II, the church was destroyed. In 1946, it was repaired. In 1948, a brick workshop began to work near the church, the church was used as a warehouse. In 1975 - 1976 the facades of the church were repaired. The inactive temple is run by the Youth Theater ; used to store props . Currently being restored.

The church is depicted on the etching of Jerzy Hoppen ( 1927 ) and the tempera of Bronislav Yamont ( 1921 - 1922 ).

The architectural appearance of the church makes it stand out from other churches in Vilnius with rare Mannerist forms of facade décor with elements of the tradition of Gothic defensive architecture. Catholic church in the form of a cross with cylindrical turrets at the corners. Tiled. The outer walls of the temple were later decorated with paired pilasters . The door of the main entrance is covered with wrought iron sheets in patterns. The windows have oak frames, and two windows behind the main altar, with iron frames - stained glass : on the left side there is a stained glass window with the image of St. Stephen , on the right side - the Heart of the Savior. Inside the temple is characterized by simplicity and lack of decoration. In the 18th century, the interior was decorated with organ choirs and six baroque altars, which died in 1794 . In the church there was a tombstone of Bishop Alexander Peter Tochilovsky (died in 1808 ). At the beginning of the 19th century, a large altar was decorated with images of St. Stepan and St. Joseph, attributed by Shimon Chekhovich . In the altar of one of the chapels was the image of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, written by Francis Smuglevich or his pupil.

Many famous people were buried in the church cemetery, including the famous architect, the creator of classicism in Vilna, Laurinas Stuoka-Gutsyavichyus ( 1753 - 1798 ), the bishop- sufragan of Vilnius David Pilhovsky ( 1735 - 1800 ), the professor of medicine Mikolaj Renier ( 1746 - 1800 ), Catholic priest, professor of logic and philosophy at Vilnius University Aniol Dovgird ( 1776–1835 ), philosopher and first translator of Immanuel Kant’s works into Polish Youzef Vladislav Bykhovets ( 1778–1845 ), “Nestor of the Vilna scene” Józef Rogowski (died 1847 ) , shambelyan King St. nislava August Yan Hodzko (relative writer Ignacy Hodzko and father of the writer Dominic Hodzko ) and his wife. The cemetery has been closed since 1865 . In the interwar years, an abandoned cemetery turned into a storage site for building materials.

Nowadays, only a tomb of the architect Laurinas Stuki-Gucevičius has been marked by a modest, kind of wooden monument with a barely readable inscription at the southern facade of the church building. A memorial plate with a portrait bas-relief of an architect and an inscription in Lithuanian (sculptor Jonas Noras Narushevichus , architect Vytautas Zaranka ^[3] ) was installed next to the wall in 1998 . Before World War II, a modest table was embedded in the wall without any decorations with an inscription in Polish .

• Wilno. Przewodnik krajoznawczy Juliusza Kłosa, Prof. Uniwersytetu St. Batorego. Wydanie trzecie poprawione po zgonie autora. Wilno, 1937. S. 193-194. (polish)
• Adomas Honoris Kirkoras. Pasivaikščiojimas po Vilnių ir jo apylinkes. Vertė Kazys Uscila. Vilnius: Mintis, 1991. p. 195-200. (lit.)
• Vladas Drėma. Dingęs Vilnius. Vilnius: Vaga, 1991. ISBN 5-415-00366-5 . P. 368-369. (lit.)

• Catholic church of St. Stephanie
• Vilniaus Šv. Stepono bažnyčia (lit.)
• Vilniaus buvęs rokitų (vėliau - marijavičių) vienuolynas ir Šv. Stepono bažnyčia (lit.)
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