on converting Russians in Lithuania. He worked for five years organizing Eastern Catholic masses, public lectures, and publications, but did not achieve any more noteworthy results. He was reelected as the Superior-General of the Marian Fathers in 1939 and moved to Rome where he lived until his death in 1951. Biography Early life and education Būčys was born in the village situated on the Šešupė river which acted as a natural border between Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire) and East Prussia. He was the eldest of eight children in a Lithuanian peasant family that owned 86 morgen of land and was active in Lithuanian cultural life. His uncle Pranciškus Būčys (1849–1925) was a pastor in Gelgaudiškis and organized a circle of Lithuanian book smugglers. Būčys' father Jonas, uncle and godfather Petras, and brother Juozas were all involved in book smuggling. His brother Andrius also became a priest. Būčys received his first education at home before entering a primary school in in 1880. He studied at the Marijampolė Gymnasium in 1883–1889 and at the Sejny Priest Seminary in 1890–1895. He was an average student and had to repeat the fifth year at the gymnasium and failed entrance exams to the seminary in 1889. Already as a cleric, Būčys began contributing to the banned Lithuanian press. Together with Antanas Milukas and others, he organized a handwritten Lithuanian-language weekly newsletter, initially known as Knapt. It grew from 8 pages to 24 pages and changed titles to Visko po biskį (A Little About Everything) and Viltis (Hope). Būčys and wanted to organize a larger secret cleric society that would include members not only from Sejny but also from Kaunas and Vilnius Priest Seminaries. They held discussions with clerics in Kaunas and Vilnius, including about replacing Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga with another publication, but the plans did not come to fruition. Starting in 1891, Būčys also contributed articles to Ūkininkas, Vienybė lietuvninkų, Žemaičių ir Lietuvos apžvalga, Varpas. In Varpas, he argued with editor Vincas Kudirka about Caritatis, an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII in which the pope urged Polish bishops to obey Russian authorities. Kudirka attacked the encyclical citing the example of the Kražiai massacre in 1893 while Bučys defended it. He helped publish a Lithuanian translation of a collection of sermons by (published in 1894) and edited a translation of The Month of Mary by (published in 1900). He continued studies at