Official Christianization of the Baltic Nations

by Audrius Dundzila, Ph.D.

First published in "romuva", issue #10, 1992.

The Balts succumbed to the Christianity rather late: in fact, they were the very last European Pagans. Catholic crusaders attacked the Baltic Prussian Duchy around 1230, conquering it by 1260. The knights did not christianize the Prussians since they only wanted their land and labor; christianization began only after the Protestant Reformation which also effected the establishment of a German Prussian state in 1525. The Prussians ceased to exist as a nation by the end of the 16th century.

Catholic knights invaded the Latvians and Curonians around 1286 and proclaimed Latvia Christian in 1290 when they established the Duchy of Livonia on Curonian, Latvian, and Estonian lands. They, then, annihilated the Curonian nation. Christianization did not begin until after the Reformation.

Catholic knights succeeded in conquering only the Lithuanian seashore--Lithuania Minor and Samogitia to be specific--but they did not introduce Christianity there. Lithuanian succeeded in mounting a strong defence against the crusaders. Nevertheless, King Mindaugas accepted baptism in 1251 to protect Lithuania from the knights who were attacking under the guise of Christianization. Mindaugas abandoned the experiment a decade later since hostilities did not cease.

A century and a half later, in 1387, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania officially accepted Christianity as its state religion when it was forced into a compact with the Kingdom of Poland to defend itself against the knights. Upon the annexation of the Samogitian Duchies regained from the knights, the Samogitian Lithuanians were officially christianized around 1410. Again, proselytizing began only after the Reformation.