Staņislavs Kučinskis – pirmais latviešu jezuīts ar Triju Zvaigžņu ordeni
Staņislavs Kučinskis. The first Jesuit – Recipient of the Order of Three Stars

Summary/Abstract: The history of the Roman Catholic faith in Latvia during the last three hundred years does not display pronounced tendency to develop institutions of exclusively “holy life”. This phenomenon is explicable by the fact that the Tsarist Russia, in whose territory Latvia was incorporated, did not foster the monastic way of life for the Catholic believers. After the Polish uprisings ( in 1830 – 1831, and in 1862 –1864) the Tsarist administration implemented the policy of closure of Roman Catholic monasteries. Ideas about alternative forms of religious life, except Through the offices of pastoral service did not take hold in lay or popular priestly imagination. Paradoxically, however, the Society of Jesus is thankful to the Tsarist regime, for permitting its activities within the Empire at a time when the rest of European monarchies were enforcing the regula of Pope Clement XIV (1769–1774) about the closure of the Order of Jesuits (1773). Therefore the return of the Order of Jesuits to Latvia in the thirties of the 20th century is to be taken as a renewal and revitalization of Jesuit activities there, thus ensuring the continuity of the spiritual tradition.

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