Kun. Jonas Totoraitis MIC, Seinų kunigų seminarijos dvasios tėvas
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Jonas Totoraitis; Kunigai; Seinų kunigų seminarija; Jonas Totoraitis; Priests; Seinai Priest Seminary.
ENWhen Priest Jonas Totoraitis became a Marian monk, an important test awaited him: the duties of the father of the spirit at the Seinai seminary. The influence of the spirit father is important in shaping the spiritual life of future priests, their views. J. Totoraitis took on the duties entrusted to him with full responsibility. Carefully, according to the spiritual literature in German and French, he organized meditations, conferences, and retreats. Conferences, meditations, or retreats led by the Spirit Father to the clergy reached the hearts and feelings of the young people, and the thoughts expressed became the basis for reflection or the imperative of further action. J. Totoraitis was not indifferent to the intellectual education of clergymen, he encouraged clergymen to pursue higher education. Not a single clergyman, encouraged by him, chose to study at a university or academy. Clergy of two nationalities - Lithuanians and Poles - studied at the seminary. As a result, there were delicate issues of ethnic relations. Although J. Totoraitis, as a Lithuanian, felt favourable to Lithuanian clergymen, his attention was also drawn to Polish clergy. He was attentive to both. However, his relations with the pro-Polish leadership of the seminary did not go beyond official communication. At the seminary, J. Totoraitis felt lonely, although he interacted with Lithuanian priests who worked in Seinai. There was little connection to public life in Seinai, but he did not abandon the vocation of a historian and published a study of the history of Lithuanian revival in the Vadovas. [From the publication]
