Motejus Valancius

Born Feb. 16 (28), 1801, in the village of Nasrėnai, in present-day Kreting Raion; died May 17 (29), 1875, in Kaunas. Lithuanian writer. Professor at St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Catholic bishop of Žemaitė from 1850.

Valancius was involved in educational work and published many spiritual pamphlets and books and organized elementary schools and libraries. He played a reactionary role during the uprising of 1863, attempting to draw the peasantry away from the struggle against the landlords. He published a collection of Lithuanian proverbs in 1867. In the tale Juzė From Palanga (1869) and in the collections of short stories A Little Book for Children (1864) and^ Little Book for Adults (1868) he pursued a didactic goal but at the same time presented a truthful and colorful picture of the life and customs of the people.