{"id":2198,"date":"2026-04-21T11:44:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/?page_id=2198"},"modified":"2026-04-21T11:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:45:45","slug":"liturginiu-rubu-siuvimas-ir-siuvinejimas-kauno-benediktiniu-vienuolyne-the-sewing-and-embroidery-of-liturgical-vestments-at-the-benedictine-monastery-of-kaunas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/archyvas\/turinys-t-18\/liturginiu-rubu-siuvimas-ir-siuvinejimas-kauno-benediktiniu-vienuolyne-the-sewing-and-embroidery-of-liturgical-vestments-at-the-benedictine-monastery-of-kaunas\/","title":{"rendered":"Liturgini\u0173 r\u016bb\u0173 siuvimas ir siuvin\u0117jimas Kauno benediktini\u0173 vienuolyne \/ The Sewing and Embroidery of Liturgical Vestments at the Benedictine Monastery of Kaunas (Summary)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabija Surdokait\u0117-Vitien\u0117 (PDF)<\/strong><\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.53631\/MIS\/2025.18.4<\/a><\/p>\n

The article examines a specific form of daily manual labour in the Benedictine monasteries of the Kulm (Polish: Che\u0142mno) Congregation: the embroidery of liturgical textiles. We present a case study of embroidery at the Benedictine monastery in Kaunas, covering a broad time frame from its founding until its closure in 1948.<\/p>\n

While the earliest archival records of embroidery on liturgical vestments at the Benedictine monastery in Kaunas date back to the late 19th century, it can be inferred from the practices observed in other monasteries following the Rule of Kulm that embroidery was likely performed at the Kaunas monastery from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Until the end of the 19th century, the Benedictine nuns in Kaunas, like those in other monasteries of the time, engaged in embroidery according to the guidelines and working hours of their rule. In the first half of the 19th century, a girls\u02bc school operated at the monastery, where students were taught various handicrafts, including various embroidery techniques. It is evident that the nuns themselves were skilled in this craft.<\/p>\n

At the end of the 19th century, a workshop for the production of church supplies was established at the Benedictine monastery in Kaunas, reflecting an organised enterprise characteristic of that period. The reconstruction of these daily activities up to the end of the 19th century is based on the uneven preservation of archival documents, both written and printed. In contrast, the surviving examples of liturgical textiles from the later period, between the 1920s and 1970s, are studied in greater detail concerning decorative and embroidery techniques, highlighting the relationship between tradition, conservatism and modernity.<\/p>\n

The expansion and enhancement of the sewing and embroidery workshop for liturgical vestments at the Benedictine Monastery in Kaunas are largely due to the efforts of the abbess, Sister Cecilija Kolumba Baranauskait\u0117. She established contacts and procured embroidery materials and supplies from well-regarded, reliable companies in Russia, Poland and Germany, some of which had been operating since the mid-19th century. It indicates that the monastery not only aimed for financial stability\u2014having lost its real estate foundations in the mid-19th century and in desperate need of income\u2014but that it also prioritised the quality of its liturgical textiles.<\/p>\n

Available documentation, including invoices of purchased goods in the early 20th century and lists of companies they collaborated with, such as the liturgical vestments produced and sold by the companies themselves, church supply workshops and stowages, ready-made elements, composition details of vestments and materials suggests that the Benedictines of Kaunas catered to the tastes of Lithuanian customers at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Their liturgical vestments featured historicist-symbolic d\u00e9cor. It was during the interwar period, however, that a new decorative pattern for chasubles emerged, blending elements of historicism with a more restrained Art Deco style. Following the monastery\u02bcs closure in 1948, at least two sisters\u2014Marijona, Sister Margarita Lu\u017eaityt\u0117 (1896\u20131982) and Teres\u0117, Sister Konrada Braslauskait\u0117 (1912\u20132002)\u2014continued to work clandestinely, sewing and embroidering liturgical vestments. Marijona, Sister Margarita Lu\u017eaityt\u0117, provided churches in the \u0160iauliai and Joni\u0161kis deaneries with her own hand-embroidered chasubles.<\/p>\n

Despite their conservative aesthetic preferences, the nuns embraced the latest innovative technologies in their liturgical vestment workshops\u2014sewing, embroidery and knitting machines, along with metallised threads and embroidery accessories made using new, cheaper technologies such as tattings, galloons, sequins, glass beads, bullions and ready-made elements. They also used mercerised cotton embroidery threads, which, thanks to technological innovations and advancements in the chemical industry, had become a cost-effective alternative to silk yarns.<\/p>\n

Keywords:<\/strong> monastic orders, Benedictines, liturgical vestments, embroidery, interwar period, Soviet era<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabija Surdokait\u0117-Vitien\u0117 (PDF) https:\/\/doi.org\/10.53631\/MIS\/2025.18.4 The article examines a specific form of daily manual labour in the Benedictine monasteries of the Kulm (Polish: Che\u0142mno) Congregation: the embroidery of liturgical textiles. We present a case study of embroidery at the Benedictine monastery in Kaunas, covering a broad time frame from its founding until its closure in 1948.[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2182,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2198","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2200,"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2198\/revisions\/2200"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arthistorystudies.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}