Bruno Markaitis SJ: visuomeninės ir estetinės pažiūros, religinės pasaulėžiūros nuostatos (I)
BRUNO MARKAITIS SJ: THE FEATURES OF HIS AESTHETICS AND HIS RELIGIOUS OUTLOOKS (I)

Summary/Abstract: B. Markaitis SJ - the Lithuanian priest, Jesuit, composer, music conductor, publicist – was one of emigrants’, who was left out of the great surge of Return. Till now his name does not mean anything to the majority of musicians in Lithuania. The time of Rebirth in Lithuania brought a variety of documents of musicians who lived in exile. The rich collection of works as well as other valuable documents of Markaitis was sent to the Jesuit house in Vilnius. A large part of his documents was taken to K. Pemkus’s archive (Klaipėda University). The small (132 p.) first scientific monograph on Markaitis (the author of this essay was R. Varnas) was published in Klaipėda (2007). The author noted: “this publication only tells about Markaitis SJ - his music, almost not touching his long-term productive pastoral as well as publication activities”. It inspired the theme of this article. The goal of the first part of the article is to examine and appreciate the priest’s societal and aesthetics outlooks as well as his productive and prominent pastoral activities. Markaitis was born in Lithuania (Vilnius region, the parish of Valkininkai) on July 7, 1922. He studied in Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium. Having entered the Society of Jesus, after his Motherland had been occupied by the Soviet Union, he left to the West. Markaitis studied Theology at several universities in Italy, Germany and England. In Oxford (1948) he became an ordained priest, and served in parishes in England. In 1950 he left for the USA. Fulfilling a pastor’s activity, he studied music at Marquette University and the University of San Paulo. While living in Chicago he was an active public cultural worker as religious and music publicist and lecturer. As a lecturer and performer of his own music, Markaitis appeared on numerous TV and radio shows. In 1961-1967 he served as a Lithuanian Jesuit Provincial for the continent of America. Markaitis was a regular contributor to the periodical magazine “The Letters to Lithuanians”, he edited the monograph “Lithuanian Jesuits” (1956). “The deep of hearth”, his book of religious articles was published in 1957. In spite of the prominent results of his unselfish activity with its uncompromising, noble-minded, creative, innovative tendencies, his personality had not been estimated properly. The 1960’s was the beginning of Markaitis’ successful music career. His pieces were performed by famous American artists and groups as well as Lithuanian performers. For example, “The night of Sorrow”, a cantata for soloists, joint choir and symphonic orchestra (1957) was performed at New York’s “Carnegie hall”. his Sonata in d major for violin, performed by famous violinist Francois D’Albert, has been recorded and performed in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Japan. “Community mass” (recorded and published), performed by the New York Interfaith Choir – at “Carnegie hall”; oratorio “100 Suns” (text by B. Akers SJ) was performed at the Loyola University chape

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