Posts Tagged ‘baranauskas’

Who was Antanas Baranauskas

Antanas Baranauskas (17 jaunari 1835 – 26 november 1902)

Bishop, poet and linguist.

Antanas Baranauskas

Antanas Baranauskas was born in Anykšciai, Lithuania. In 1853 he finished the Office Workers School in Rumšiškes and until 1856 worked as a clerk in Vainutas, Raseiniai, Seda and Skuodas.

In 1856-1858 he studied at the Varniai Seminary and in 1862 graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Until 1864 he studied at Munich, Rome and Louvain Universities.

Baranauskas was professor of the Kaunas Seminary in 1864-1884, the Suffragan Bishop of Samogitia from 1885 and Bishop of Seinai from 1897. He began writing poems in 1849.

Initially he composed in Polish and from  1853 in Lithuanian, his most significant work being the poem “The Forest of Anykšciai”. Baranauskas laid the foundation for Lithuanian dialectology: he was the first to classify Lithuanian dialects (“Notes on the Lithuanian Language and Vocabulary”, St. Petersburg, 1898), gathered some dialectal material and wrote a grammar of the Lithuanian language “A Handbook of the Lithuanian Language” (1896).

He died in Seinai and was buried in Seinai Cathedral.