Our Vilnius correspondent, Ruta Tumenaita, travelled to the capital of her Baltic neighbour Tallinn for the beatification of the German-born Jesuit Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, who was one of an estimated 23,000 Estonians to have died in the 1940s as a result of mass deportations to remote parts of the Soviet Union.

From the flower arrangements, featuring the blue, black and white of the Estonian flag interspersed with gory purple, to the majestic singing of the cathedral choir, everything about the beatification Mass in Vabaduse (“Freedom”) Square in Tallinn was beautifully done.

“Taste and minimalism, as you would expect in the North,” my friend Sigita Maslauskaite-Mažyliene, the artist and art historian who is Lithuania’s ambassador to the Holy See, whispered in my ear.

Get Instant Access

Continue Reading

Register for free to read this article in full

REGISTER

Subscribe for unlimited access

SUBSCRIBE NOW

From just £37.50 quarterly

  Print copy of The Tablet delivered directly to your door.
  Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
  Access to the weekly digital copy of The Tablet.
  Full access to The Tablet’s archive – over 180 years of back issues.

Already a subscriber? Login