Alfonsas Petrulis (1873-1928) was a Lithuanian

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

priest and journalist, and one of the twenty signatories to the

Act of Independence of Lithuania The Act of Independence of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Aktas) or the Act of February 16, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Nutarimas), The signed document is actually titled simply '' ...

. Born near

Biržai Biržai (, known also by several alternative names) is a town in northern Lithuania. Biržai is famous for its reconstructed Biržai Castle manor, and the whole region is renowned for its many traditional-recipe beer breweries. Names The name of ...

, he attended seminaries at

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Tra ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

and

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, and was ordained in 1899. He then served in a number of parishes in the Vilnius

Diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

. Petrulis was active in the Lithuanian independence movement from 1899 to 1918; he worked in schools and newspapers, and pressed for the freedom to use the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 milli ...

in the church. In 1917 he was a member of the Vilnius Conference, and was elected to the

Council of Lithuania The Council of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Taryba, german: Litauischer Staatsrat, pl, Rada Litewska), after July 11, 1918 the State Council of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Valstybės Taryba) was convened at the Vilnius Conference that took place betwe ...

, signing the Act of Independence in 1918. He then travelled to Switzerland, along with four other council members, to encourage formal recognition of the state. After returning, he served as the Council's secretary and worked on those laws concerning religion in the new republic. He continued serving his pastoral duties until his death in 1928.

References

*"Petrulis, Alfonsas". Encyclopedia Lituanica IV: 243. (1970-1978). Ed. Simas Sužiedėlis. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. LCCN 74-114275. 1873 births 1928 deaths Lithuanian clergy People from Biržai District Municipality People from Biržai Members of the Council of Lithuania Lithuanian independence activists {{Lithuania-politician-stub