Between 1863 and 1864, he studied at Munich's, Rome's, Innsbruck's and Louvain's Catholic universities. Starting in 1871, he worked at the Kaunas Priest Seminary, and began teaching the Lithuanian language. He authored a grammar textbook in Lithuanian, Mokslas lietuviškosios kalbos. After Baranauskas went to Sejny, he gained a considerable reputation by being able to preach in both Polish and Lithuanian. By 1880, after he realized that the ban of printing in the Lithuanian language would not be lifted, in spite of several unofficial promises by Tsarist authorities to do so, his desire to promote the Lithuanian language slowly declined. He never ceased to believe, that Lithuanian should be developed and expanded and until his death worked on a translation of the Bible into Lithuanian, and working 10–12 hours a day, succeeded to translate three fifths of the Old Testament. In his later years, Antanas Baranauskas, enjoyed some of the comforts of life. His beliefs were similar to the later Krajowcy group. Therefore, for the rest of his life he tried to reconcile nationalists from both - Lithuanian and Polish - sides. For that he was rather unpopular amongst the nationalists in both sides. Most of the Lithuanians did not attend his burial, considering him a traitor of the national revival movement, mostly Russian officials and Poles attended it. It was a completely different story when a monument for him was built in Sejny. Only Lithuanians attended the event, and even then paint was spilt on the monument the following night. Legacy Before Baranauskas, the main "respectable" languages in the area were considered to be Russian and Polish, so Baranauskas was one of the few primary individuals responsible for re-legitimizing the Lithuanian language, and by extension, Lithuanian culture. Referring to Baranauskas in a lecture, the early 20th century Lithuanian poet Maironis once said, "Without him, there might not be us". Baranauskas's home is preserved in the Anykščiai Regional Park. References External links Memorial Museum of Baranauskas 1835 births 1902 deaths 19th-century Lithuanian poets Lithuanian Catholic poets Lithuanian Roman Catholic bishops Linguists from Lithuania 19th-century Lithuanian mathematicians People from Anykščiai Lithuanian writers in Polish Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni