Exhibition "Ineffabilis Deus," January 28–March 28, 2026

Exhibition "Ineffabilis Deus," January 28–March 28, 2026, at the Museum of Church Heritage, 9 St. Michael's St., Vilnius.

Pope Pius IX, based on the long tradition and teaching of the Catholic Church, proclaimed in 1854 in the bull "Ineffabilis Deus" the Blessed Virgin Mary. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The main exhibits of the exhibition are the original manuscript albums of the bull "Ineffabilis Deus" in Lithuanian and Polish and examples of folk piety in Lithuania inspired by the bull. The Lithuanian translation of the bull from Latin was carried out by the bishop of Samogitia Motiejus Valančius.

The manuscripts contain particularly vivid state motifs created by Marija Tyzenhauzaitė-Pšezdzeckienė (Polish edition) and Idalija Sobianskytė-Broel-Platerienė (Lithuanian edition), who artistically decorated the albums. The pages of the Lithuanian manuscript are embellished with illustrations with wonderfully rendered "flowers of the fields and forests of Lithuania", while the Polish manuscript is full of images of historical personalities, cities and sanctuaries of Lithuania and Poland.

The exhibition reveals the circumstances of the creation of the translations of the bull manuscripts, the efforts of compatriots to preserve the memory of Lithuania and Poland during the years of the tsarist occupation and the ban on the press, and the people's devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To the Virgin Mary in Lithuania. This is a rare opportunity to see up close the documents that are usually stored in the vaults of the Vatican Library, and at the same time to reassess the importance of Motiejus Valančius in the cultural history of Lithuania.