The Catholic Postil, That Is a Lay Out of Gospels for Every Week and Feast of the Entire Year (modern , original Lithuanian: Postilla catholicka, tái est Ižguldimas ewangeliu kiekwienos nedelos ir szwętes per wissús metús) was a collection of Roman Catholic sermons and Bible commentaries (postil) by Jakub Wujek translated from Polish to Lithuanian by Mikalojus Daukša and first published in 1599. It was one of the first Lithuanian-language texts published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The work is valued by researchers for the purity of the Lithuanian language and for its Polish dedication that defended the use of the Lithuanian language in public life. The 646-page postil remained the longest Lithuanian published work until the 19th century.
Publication history
First publication
After the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Roman Catholic Church religious texts in native languages to combat the Protestant Reformation. Lutheran pastor Jonas Bretkūnas published his Lithuanian postil in the Duchy of Prussia in 1591 prompting Lithuanian Catholics into action. Jakub Wujek, rector of the Jesuit Academy in Vilnius, published two postils in Polish – a larger one in 1573–1575 and a smaller in 1579–1580. The large postil was aimed at well educated clergy and delved into theological arguments by various Christian sects. The smaller postil was aimed at an average priest. It was not a summary of the larger postil, but a brand new work that used various texts by other authors, including Louis of Granada, Johann Wild (Ferus), Johann Eck, Johann Augustanus Faber, etc. Wujek's postils were an answer to a Protestant postil of Mikołaj Rej published in 1557.
Lithuanian priest Mikalojus Daukša translated the smaller postil into Lithuanian. He used the 2nd edition of the Polish postil and later added details from the 3rd edition which was published in 1590 in Kraków. Several times, the text refers to Pope Gregory XIII, who died in 1585, as the current pope though the text was given to the printing press of the Jesuit Academy in Vilnius in early 1595 (though, due to financial difficulties, it was not published until 1599). At the time, 500 copies of books were usually published but it is very possible that more copies of the Catholic Postil were published to compete with the Protestant Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas. After translating the postil, Daukša also translated Catechism, or Education Obligatory to Every Christian but it was published first in 1595 as it was much smaller and less expensive work.
Surviving copies
Eight original postils survive. They are kept at the Vilnius University Library (3 copies), National Martynas Mažvydas Library, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Göttingen State and University Library, Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Vatican Library. The Vatican copy was gifted to Pope Pius XI by President Antanas Smetona in May 1930.
Academic reprints
Excerpts from the Catholic Postil by Daukša were first republished in 1823 in Vilnius. It was two short booklets (25 pages and 16 pages) believed to have been prepared by Simonas Stanevičius to showcase the beauty and lexical richness of the Lithuanian language and to encourage its development and use. The first Lithuanian translation of the Polish dedication to the reader was published in Varpas in 1900. In the 19th century, Daukša and his texts became firmly established as key developments in the history of the Lithuanian language and started attracting academic interest.
Stanevičius and later bishop Motiejus Valančius raised the issue of republishing the Catholic Postil in full, but the work was started by Eduards Volters only in 1898. The first two sections were published in 1904 and 1909. The third section was almost complete, but the outbreak of World War I prevented its publication. Volters managed to convince the Soviet Union to complete the third section and it was published in 1927. In total, 456 pages (out of 628) of the original postil were published.
In 1926, a photocopy of the postil was published by Mykolas Biržiška. In 1977, Polish linguist published a two-volume Indeks-słownik do Daukšos Postile which alphabetically indexes all Lithuanian words and their forms in the postil and provides their Polish equivalent in Wujek's postil. A new publication of the postil alongside the Polish original was prepared by Jonas Palionis and published in 2000.