Christianization of Lithuania: the result of the choice between East and West

Western Christianity had been active in Lithuania for several centuries before it was baptized. Christianity reached Lithuanians from the East also in the first millennium. Lithuania has always aligned with Western Europe, and Christian Europe has always tried to Christianize Lithuania. Thus, at the turn of the millennia, there were three mission directions to the Baltic lands: North, West, and South. Therefore, all efforts to baptize Lithuania did not come from the East in fact, but from the West, because the Western world seemed to be obliged to carry Christianity to Lithuania. Still, Lithuania was not in a good position to receive baptism at the beginning of its state. Although, after the first missionaries to the Baltic lands, the first real fact of baptism occurred only in 1251. Lithuania became a kingdom, but Christianity soon faded. Later there was a distraction between Christianity and Paganism. The nation could receive baptism from Byzantium or from Rome. Due to more active missions, cultural benefits, and other influencing factors, Lithuania was becoming a Catholic country. This choice also determined Lithuania›s further development. It became one of the Western European states whose civilization was created by the Catholic Church. Without surviving the early Middle Ages, the country simply got the chance to take advantage of what had already been created in the West, principles of life that grew from the roots of Christian ideology in the first centuries. Today›s Lithuania can only use its energy to preserve its values, which can be used to identify the nation and the state as part of Western European civilization by maintaining a connection with these roots