History
TYSZKTEWICZ
Prepared
by “Encyclopedia Lituanica”. II. Boston, 1972. P.
517-519
- TYSZKTEWICZ
(Tiskevicius), Lithiuanian family of magnates, descended;
from the Ukrainian landholder Tyszko (15th century). The early generations
of this family resided mostly in the eastern, Slavic portions of the
Lithuanian state. At the beginning of the 16th century some of its members
establlshed themselves in the territories of Gardinas (Grodno) and Lyda,
in ethnographic Lithuania, while others remained in Slavic Volynia
(annexed by Poland in 1569). In 1516 members of the family were granted
the title of count. One branch of the family used Skumin as an alternate
or additional surname. Particularly influential during the 17th century,
the family produced a considerable number of palatines, hetmans,
castellans, bishops, other high officials, and scholars.
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- TYSZKIEWICZ,
Alexander (ca 1866 -1945), owner of the Kretinga estate and
supporter of the Lithuanian national movement. His daughter Maria helped
smuggle forbidden Lithuanian publications across the Prussian border in
her carriage, which was not searched by the guards. He addressed a lengthy
memorandum dated May 5, 1897, to Sergei P. Sukhodolsky, governor-general
of Kaunas, in which he explained the irrationality of the Russian policy
against Lithuanian publications and emphasized the necessity of restoring
their legal use. He argued that the Press Ban (imposed since 1864)
hampered cultural progress in Lithuania, made criminals out of harmless
people merely wishing to read a prayerbook, catechism or calendar in their
native language and en couraged the distribution from abroad of socialist
and atheist publications injurious to the welfare of the Russian Empire.
However, Tsarist officials ignored his well-chosen arguments, and the
Press Ban continued until 1904. Later he supported the reestablishment of
independent Lithuania (1918). When the Soviets occupied Lithuania during
World War II, he retreated to Germany.
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- TYSZKIEWICZ,
Alfred (1882-1930),
Lithuanian representative in Great Britain, born in Astravas, county of
Birzai, on Oct. 3, 1882. He served in the Russian army and participated in
the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). Subsequently he worked in the Foreign
Ministry and was secretary to the Russian embassy in London. In 1919 he
attended the Peace Conference in Paris, where he helped the Lithuanian
delegation. Extricating himself from service to post-revolutionary Russia,
he became Lithuania's minister to Great Britain (1920-21). For his
services to the Republic of Lithuania he was awarded the Order of
Gediminas (1928). He died in Paris on May 19, 1930.
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- TYSZKIEWICZ,
Anthony Dominick (1692-1762), bishop of Samogitia. He
studied philosophy and theology at the Academy of Vilnius. Ordained in
1715, he was appointed chancellor of the Vilnius diocesan chapter and
raised to the rank of canon in 1725. The chapter delegated him to the
Supreme Tribunal and to the diet several times. In 1739 he was consecrated
auxiliary bishop of Kiev, and a year later he was appointed bishop of
Samogitia. He immediately visited all parishes; instituted a three-month
course at Varniai to further the theological training of priests; placed
the Piarists in charge of the seminary; constructed new facilities for the
latter; and required priests and clerics to attend seven-day retreats each
year. Furthermore, he established the Rochite monks at Varniai and the
Marian Sisters at Kraziai. In 1752 he convened a diocesan synod at
Varniai. Twice (1748 and 1755) he prepared detailed reports on the state
of his diocese and sent them to the Apostolic See (Relationes dioecesis
Samogitiae). During his tenure nine new churches were built, including one
from his personal funds. His publications include a short volume in Polish
on the life of St. Casimir (1752) and Synodus diocesana Mednicensis seu
Samogitiae (1752). He died in Alsedziai on Jan 31, 1762.
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- TYSZKIEWICZ,
Constantine (1806-1868), archaeologist, ethnologist, and
geographer, brother of Eustach. He was educated at the University of
Vilnius. From 1828-31 he worked for the Finance Ministry and undertook
study trips to Berlin, Brussels, Dresden, Koln, London, and Paris. From
1831 he lived on his estate at Lohoisk in the province of Minsk, engaged
in industrial development and scholarly research. A member of the
Archaeological Commission and other scientific societies, he investigated
the history of Lithuania and western Belorussia, collecting relevant
objects and conducting archaeological excavations. He published, among
others, works on Lithuanian fortresses and fortress hills and an album of
old Lithuanian engravings. He is best known for the expedition he
organized and financed in 1857 to explore the Neris river from the source
to its mouth. The ample hydrological, geographical, and anthropological
data he collected were published in a posthumous volume.
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- TYSZKIEWICZ,
Eustach (1814-1873), pioneer of Lithuanian archaeology.
From 1835 he lived in Vilnius and was employed in the governor-general’s
office. In 1837 he began exploring barrow graves in the provinces of Minsk
and Vilnius. Eventually he amassed a huge and systematically ordered
collection of archaeological finds (1848). Anxious to expand his horizons,
he had undertaken a research trip to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland (1843),
on which he reported in the two-volume study, Listy z Szwecji (1846). This
trip had great influence on his subsequent work, Badania archeologiczne
nad zabytkami przedmiotow sztuki (1850), in which he applied the so-called
tripartite scheme developed by Danish scholar C. J. Thomson. In an earlier
work, Rzut oka na zrodla archeologji krajowej (1842), Tyszkiewicz had
ordered his finds not by chronology, but by their qualitative
characteristics.
- One of his major accomplishments was the
creation of the Archaeological Commission and the establishment of the
Museum of Antiquity in Vilnius, permission for both of which was received
from the Russian government in 1855. Opened in 1856, the Museum was housed
in the former University of Vilnius and consisted of seven sections:
library, numismatics, engravings and lithography, art, documents and
manuscripts, history, and archaeology. The Archaeological Commission,
which was chaired by Tyszkiewicz, published a number of important studies.
But it was forced to discontinue its research after the anti-Russian
insurrection of 1863. Governor-general Muraviev had the best displays in
the museum shipped to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Rumiantsev
Museum in Moscow, while other less valuable objects were distributed among
provincial museums and private collections. After this blow to his life's
work he moved to Birzai. He died in Vilnius on Aug. 15. 1873.
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- TYSZKIEWICZ,
George (1596-1656), bishop of Samogitia and Vilnius. He
studied at the Jesuit College in Vilnius, graduated from the Academy of
Cracow, and was ordained priest in 1622. For some time he was employed in
the diocesan chancellery of Cracow before being consecrated suffragan
bishop of Vilnius in 1628. He actively asserted himself in the fields of
pastoral and charitable work; through his efforts a hospital for the poor
was built in Vilnius. In 1633 he was appointed bishop of Samogitia. He
made frequent visitations of parishes, urged the construction of more
churches, and called a number of diocesan synods (1636, 1639, 1643, and
1647). In 1639 he visited Rome, reported to the Holy See on the state of
his diocese, and performed a mission for King Ladislas Vasa concerning the
beatification of Stanislaw Kostka. Pope Urban VIII raised him to the rank
of domestic prelate and, in addition, appointed him administrator of the
diocese of Piltene (Courland). He tried to reclaim this heavily Protestant
diocese for Catholicism and to join it to his own Samogitian diocese, but
eventually found it necessary to abandon these plans. Dividing the
Samogitian diocese into six deaconries, he revived Catholic life there,
inviting the Benedictine nuns from Vilnius and settling them at Kraziai
(1643), building a convent for the Sisters of St. Catherine at Krakes
(1645), bringing the Dominicans to Zemaiciu Kalvarija (1637), Raseiniai
(1642), and Virbalis (1643), and installing the Carmelites at Linkuva and
Naumiestis (later renamed Kudirkos Naumiestis). He further concerned
himself with the creation of hymns and prayers in Lithuanian. In 1649
Bishop Tyszkiewicz was transferred to Vilnius, where he immediately
undertook the renovation of the cathedral and twice convened a diocesan
synod (1651, 1654). He obtained permission to celebrate the Feast of the
Transfer of the Relics of St. Casimir on the first Sunday after Aug. 22.
When the Muscovites invaded Lithuania and were approaching Vilnius, he
retreated to East Prussia (1655) and died at Domnau, near Kionigsberg, on
Jan. 17, 1656. His remains were transferred in 1759 to Zemaiciu Kalvarija.
Bishop Tyszkiewicz was one of the most important churchmen of the 17th
century, sharing greatly in the credit for the reinvigoration of
Catholicism in Lithuania.
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