“Per Crucem ad Astra, Through the Cross to the Stars”

At the heart of the Christian life is taking up one’s cross daily to follow Jesus (cf Mt 16:24-26; Lk 9:23). As His disciples, we are not without hope in the midst of life’s trials. The crosses we bear will be redemptive if united to our Lord’s own carrying of His Cross. Only the Crucified One can turn life’s difficulties into joy.

Lithuania’s famed Hill of Crosses is a stirring testimony to this core Christian belief. It is a small elevation on a vast field mounted by two hundred thousand crosses. It is the Baltic nation’s most popular pilgrimage destination and is surely one of the most unique in the world. More remarkable than the stirring silhouette of so many crosses in the twilight hours is what they symbolize—the steadfast faith of an entire nation in the midst of suffering, defiance of oppression, and hope for future freedom.

An interesting medieval fresco can be found in the church of Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune in Strasbourg, France. It depicts 15 kings processing by horseback, each carrying a standard bearing the name of his respective nation. The image is known as the “March of the Nations toward Christianity” depicting the chronological order of when each nation was baptized. Last in line is the standard reading “Litavia, Lithuania.”

Lithuania was the last pagan nation in Europe to convert to Christianity. Since the early 11th century there was contact with missionaries from both the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Churches. The ruling families vacillated between the two, as well as retaining the native paganism. It all depended on what was most politically useful. Widespread conversion of the population did not occur until the late 14th century.

Seeds for the growth of Christianity were planted by the blood of three Orthodox martyrs, Sts. Anthony (Antanas), John (Jonas) and Eustathius (Eustachijus), whose relics can be venerated at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in the Old Town of Vilnius. Anthony and John were brothers and Eustathius their cousin. All three served at the court of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Algirdas, who rejected Christianity after the death of his pious wife due to pressure from pagan priests. The three were revealed to be Christians by their refusal to eat meat at pagan festivals occurring on Christian fast days. When interrogated and even tortured, they boldly proclaimed their Christian faith inspiring many in the city. For this, they were all hung from the same oak tree in 1347.

As Tertullian famously stated: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Duke Algirdas would eventually return to Christianity and even became a monk towards the end of his life.

Lithuania formally became a Christian nation in 1387 following the baptism of Grand Duke Jogalia after his marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland. He chose the Polish alliance and the Catholic Church rather than an alliance with Russia and becoming an Orthodox Christian by accepting marriage to the daughter of Prince Dmitri of Moscow. The Polish alliance was thought to be more beneficial in bringing a halt to the violent crusades of the Teutonic Order trying to forcibly convert the pagan nation. As a result, Lithuania is a predominately Catholic country today.

The baptism of Lithuanian people followed along with the dismantling of pagan temples.

Over time a Christian nation developed its own customs, stories and shrines. Most cherished by the Lithuanian people is the painting of the Virgin Mary known as Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn displayed in a chapel above one of Vilnius’ historic city gates. There is also the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God at Trakai and the Shrine of Šiluva built on the site of one of Europe’s first Marian apparitions. These shrines date from the 16th and 17th centuries and have annual indulgenced feasts that draw large crowds of pilgrims.

The most visited shrine in all of Lithuania today, however, is the far more modern “Krỹžių Kálnas, Hill of Crosses.” This week thousands will be making their way to this small hill less than ten miles north of the city of Šiauliai for its own indulgenced feast which always falls on the last Sunday of July.

This shrine is not like the others. It was not built at the behest of some bishop or grand duke, nor is it built of marble or stone. It was erected spontaneously by the long-suffering Lithuanian people with wooden cross after wooden cross. The countless brave souls who mounted crosses on the hill throughout the Soviet occupation of the 20th century risked their lives to do so as an act of devotion and defiance.

It is a shrine that is actually still being built by pilgrims today, each bringing his own wooden cross to mount, joining what is now estimated to be the over two hundred thousand others. The popular custom is for pilgrims to write their prayers upon the cross expressing both their gratitude and needs to Almighty God.

A wooden castle once stood upon the hill in the Middle Ages; it was destroyed by the local Livonian army in 1348 during one of many papally sanctioned crusades to Christianize the Baltic peoples. The hill remained bare for centuries until the practice began of mounting wooden crosses upon it.

Wood carving has long been a cherished folk art of the Lithuanian people. In pagan times, sculptures would be made of the different deities, but this practice turned into what they call “kryždirbystė, cross crafting.” The artists who make these wooden sculptures of crosses, along with statues of Christ and the saints are affectionately known as “dievdirbiai, god makers.” This art form is so central to the identity of the Lithuanian people that in 2001 it was included on the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. These sculptures can be seen throughout the country on roadsides, in cemeteries and church yards.

The practice of mounting crosses on the now famed hill likely began in the early 19th century as a spontaneous act of devotion from locals seeking some favor from God or as an act of thanksgiving for an answered prayer.

The practice became more widespread after the Lithuanians joined the rebellion against Imperial Russia in what is remembered as the Polish-Russian Wars. These rebellions sought independence and a restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after their homeland was partitioned by the Russian Empire.

The local Lithuanians joined uprisings in 1830-1831 and then again in 1863. Both insurgencies were crushed. Many of the bodies of the local fallen rebels could not be recovered for a proper burial and the Tsarist authorities prohibited any memorials from being erected in their honor in town squares.

The remote location of the hill where crosses were already mounted out of private devotion became a focal point for honoring the fallen. Crosses were mounted in their honor along with the continued practice of doing so in petition or thanksgiving. This local custom continued despite Tsarist prohibitions and the ravages of the two world wars.

In the midst of the carnage of World War I, Vladimir Lenin was preparing the revolution that would lead to the Communist takeover of Russia. Towards its end of March 1917, Czar Nicholas II (who along with his family would eventually be exiled and executed) was forced to abdicate and later that same year in November, the Bolsheviks led by Lenin, took control and established the Communist state. The Bolsheviks subscribed to the philosophy of Marxist atheism which reduces religion to the “opium of the people” as a form of psychological solace for the masses, and even worse, a means of social control over the working class.

Under Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship over the Soviet Union from 1924-1953, these communist errors would attain “super power status” and be spread throughout the world.

Lithuania was occupied by Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1940 and then by the Nazis in 1941 and then again by the Soviets after the Red Army’s Baltic Offensive of 1944. In the midst of such tumult, many would journey to the hill north of Šiauliai to pray for peace. Large crowds would even come during this time on organized pilgrimages. They would mount wooden cross with prayers of petition inscribed upon them. Most at this time were undoubtedly pleas to God for peace.

When the dust settled from the Second World War, Stalin was able to begin his program of the “sovietization” of the Baltics. This era was characterized by massive deportations of anyone suspected of supporting resistance movements. Hundreds of thousands were sent to Siberia. The estimated death toll among Lithuanian deportees from 1944-1955 is 20,000, a quarter of them children.

In all Soviet occupied territories public displays of religion were strictly forbidden. Not even a small hill in the remote countryside was exempted from this policy. Bulldozers were brought in to remove all the crosses from the hill north of Šiauliai.

A resistance movement remarkable for its simplicity and spontaneity emerged from this cruel and sacrilegious act. When the crosses were removed the locals simply brought more to the hill to replace them. When the Soviets closed the road preventing access to the hill, the locals crossed through the fields by night to mount their crosses as a sign of not only their prayers but also their rejection of Godless communism.

So many crosses were mounted again on the hill that more bulldozers had to be brought in to remove them along with the KGB to make arrests. The crosses would always reappear with more added each day. The more intense the efforts were to remove crosses from the hill, the more energetic the Lithuanian people were to replace them in even greater numbers.

The life of the martyred archbishop, Blessed Teofilius Matulionis, encapsulates both the cruelty of the Soviets and the inextinguishable hope of the Lithuanian people displayed by the Hill of Crosses.

Blessed Teofilius was under surveillance throughout his priestly ministry, 16 years of which were spent in prisons and labor camps. When he was named a bishop, his ordination had to be carried out in secret for fear of Soviet reprisals. He chose for his episcopal motto “Per Crucem ad Astra, Through the Cross to the Stars”—a sign of his persevering faith rooted in hope. Still considered a threat to the atheistic regime at nearly 90 years old, he was poisoned to death by KGB agents.

The conviction behind his motto “Per Crucem ad Astra” captures the hopeful spirit of the Lithuanian people as they had to bear the heavy cross of Communist oppression for almost a century.

As the resistance continued, the small hill covered in wooden crosses north of Šiauliai became famous across the country as a symbol of Lithuania’s struggle and hope for future freedom. People from across the country began making pilgrimages to the hill to mount their crosses. During the occupation, crosses were brought from places as far away as Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Siberia. Soviet efforts to prevent this act of devotion waned in the face of such staunch resistance to the point that public pilgrimages to the hill began to be organized.

When Lithuania finally gained its independence in 1991, after almost a century of oppression, large scale pilgrimages were made to the hill as an act of thanksgiving for the restoration of their religious freedom. The largest number of Lithuanians come each year on the last Sunday of July, which has been established by the local bishop as an indulgenced feast for all who journey to the hill and mount a cross on that day.

After the Lithuanians gained their freedom, pilgrims began coming to the hill from across the globe. Among them was Pope Saint John Paul II, who celebrated Mass there in 1993 and left his own wooden cross with a marble base inscribed with the message: “Thank you Lithuanians for this Hill of Crosses which testifies to the nations of Europe and to the whole world the faith of the people of this land.”

Pilgrims walking among so many crosses are not only able to take inspiration from the history of the site but also the unique perspective it provides into Heaven’s side of prayer. Each cross has its own story and each symbolizes the varied prayers of those who mounted them. Walking on the Hill of Crosses gives the pilgrim a small sense of all that reaches the ear of God.

The Hill of Crosses is a remarkable monument to the persevering faith and hope of a persecuted people that should bolster our own confidence in the Christian belief that per Crucem ad astra—through the Cross we will reach the stars of lasting truth, justice and peace in the glory of Heaven.