Antanas Baranauskas (, ; 17 January 1835 – 26 November 1902) was a Lithuanian poet, mathematician and Catholic bishop of Sejny. Baranauskas is best known as the author of the Lithuanian poem Anykščių šilelis. He used various pseudonyms, including A.B., Bangputys, Jurksztas Smalaūsis, Jurkštas Smalaūsis, and Baronas. He also wrote poetry in Polish. Early years Baranauskas was born to a humble peasant family of Lithuanian nobility origin. Early in his youth, his parents sent him to a local parochial school. After finishing his studies there, Baranauskas initially remained in the parish. As described in his diary, between the years 1841 and 1843 he learned the Polish language and between 1848 and 1851 Russian. His first attempts to write poetry and rhyme in Lithuanian, are to be found in his diaries. Later he attended a bi-yearly school for communal writers in Rumšiškės. There he started writing his first poems in Polish. Adulthood In 1853, he finished school and started working as a writer and chancellor in various towns. During this period he began a relationship with the Samogitian poet Karolina Proniewska (Karolina Praniauskaitė) and her family. The two shared a passion for the poetry of Adam Mickiewicz. Praniauskaitė suggested that Baranauskas should try to write more in Lithuanian. In 1856, Karolina's family tried to separate the couple by sponsoring Baranauskas' entry into the Catholic Seminary of Varniai. While studying there, he began to concentrate on the development of the written Lithuanian language, and wrote a commentary on Lithuanian and Samogitian dialects Apie lietuvių ir žemaičių kalbą. It was the first scholarly attempt to distinguish these different Lithuanian dialects. While in the seminary, Baranauskas started writing poems in Lithuanian, and from that time essentially wrote in that language. One of his earlier works written under the influence of Mickiewicz was Anykščių šilelis (The Forest/Pinewood of Anykščiai). It is considered a classic work of Lithuanian literature. Literature critics consider it as a symbolic reference to Lithuanian history and language. While some critics contend that Baranauskas wrote the poem in anger, in response to an assertion by his lector Alexander Gabszewicz that the Lithuanian language was not beautiful enough to write poems in, others dispute this as a misinterpretation. The poem was first published in 1861, and again in 1862 in Laurynas Ivinskis' calendars. From 1858 to 1862, Barnauskas studied at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy, receiving a master's degree in theology.