How to Pronounce Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas
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Sep 20, 1869 Maleišiai, Utena County, Lithuania Died on 29 Apr 1933 (aged 63)
Lithuanian writer
VirgoJuozas Tumas Vaigantas - Place of Birth, Date of Birth, Age, Wiki, Facts, Net Worth, Birthday, Biography and Family
Juozas Tumas Vaigantas, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
About Juozas Tumas Vaigantas
- Juozas Tumas also known by the pen name Vaižgantas (20 September 1869 – 29 April 1933) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and an activist during the Lithuanian National Revival.
- He was a prolific writer, editor of nine periodicals, university professor, and member of numerous societies and organizations.
- His most notable works of fiction include the novel Pragiedruliai (Cloud Clearing) and the narrative Dedes ir dedienes (Uncles and Aunts) about the ordinary village folk. Born to a family of Lithuanian peasants, Tumas was educated at a gymnasium in Daugavpils (present-day Latvia) and Kaunas Priest Seminary.
- He began contributing to the Lithuanian press, then banned by the Tsarist authorities, in 1889 or 1890.
- He was ordained as a priest in 1893 and posted to Mitau (present-day Jelgava, Latvia).
- In 1895, he was reassigned to Mosedis in northwestern Lithuania.
- There he organized the publication of Tevynes sargas and the book smuggling into Lithuania.
- His brother Jonas was caught with the banned publications and was sentenced to three years in prison and two years of exile.
- Due to his Lithuanian activities and short temper, Tumas quarreled with his superiors and was frequently moved to increasingly more remote parishes.
- However, in 1906, bishops of Samogitia and Vilnius agreed to allow Tumas to move to Vilnius to work as an editor of the daily Vilniaus žinios published by Petras Vileišis.
- He edited the newspaper only for a couple of months but remained in Vilnius as editor of Viltis, co-founded with Antanas Smetona.
- This new cultural newspaper hoped to unite conservative Catholic clergy and more liberal intelligentsia for the common good of the Lithuanian nation.
- After publishing an article critical of the Diocese of Vilnius for suppressing the Lithuanian language in favor of the Polish language, Tumas was exiled to Laižuva in 1911.
- In 1911, together with Konstantinas Olšauskas, he toured Lithuanian American communities collecting donations for the construction of the headquarters of the Saule Society.
- During World War I, Tumas moved to Riga and edited Rygos garsas.
- As a member of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers, he organized relief for Lithuanian refugees.
- In 1917, as one of the founders of the Party of National Progress, he attended political conferences in Petrograd, Kiev, and Stockholm advocating for full independence of Lithuania.
- He returned to Vilnius in 1918, but moved to Kaunas after the city was captured by Poland.
- He edited Tauta, published by the Party of National Progress, and ran in the elections to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania, but largely withdrew from politics when he was not elected.
- He became rector of the Church of Vytautas the Great and organized its reconstruction.
- From 1922 to 1929, he taught a course on the Lithuanian literature during the era of the Lithuanian press ban (1864–1904) at the University of Lithuania.
- Tumas published several works on writers' biographies and amassed a large collection of material (manuscripts, correspondence, photos, etc.) about the writers.
- On the basis of this material, he organized a literary archive at the university.
