Juozas Montvila was a Lithuanian Catholic priest who died in the sinking of the Titanic and later became known for his exemplary behavior as a pastor.
Juozas Montvila was born on 3 January 1885 in Gudine, Lithuania. He was the eldest of eight children of Lithuanian couple Kazys Montvila and Magdalena Karalyavičiūtė. He was sometimes referred to as 'Juozapas'. He first attended primary school in Marijampolė, then the local grammar school. After that came the seminary of Seinų.
On March 22, 1908 he was ordained a priest of the Eastern Catholic Church in Lithuania in Warsaw. After his first Levite ministry he was transferred to the parish of Lipsk in the district of Augustavas (today Augustów in Poland). He got into trouble when he conducted infant baptism and confession for members of the Uniate Church, which had been forbidden since its forced incorporation into the Russian Orthodox Church. This led to criminal proceedings against him. He was transferred to the municipality of Liubavas and was subsequently no longer allowed to exercise his office. Therefore, he earned his living as an illustrator for Catholic magazines. With the consent of the Bishop of Seinai (now Sejny, Poland), Antanas Karosas, he secretly left Lithuania at the end of 1911 to settle with his brother Petras, who had emigrated to the USA. In doing so, he wanted to avoid a professional ban in the entire Russian Empire as well as an imminent punishment.
On April 2, 1912, he was in London, where he informed his brother by letter of his imminent arrival. He booked a Second Class ticket for the RMS Titanic. He boarded in Southampton. In his luggage was a book with Lithuanian songs by Antanas and Jonas Juška, which he hoped to publish in the USA. This book was recovered from the wreckage decades later, along with other passenger effects.
During his voyage he spent some time in the Library, as noted by well-known Second Class passenger Lawrence Beesley, who later wrote about the disaster, and had spotted him there, as well as another priest.
Sinking of the Titanic[]
After colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic late in the evening of April 14, 1912, it quickly became apparent that the ship was sinking. Montvila provided spiritual assistance to the passengers. Like his brothers Thomas Byles and Joseph Peruschitz, he refrained from being rescued and left the offered space in a lifeboat to another passenger. In doing so, he accepted his certainly predictable death. He died in the sinking. His body was never found or identified. An aid fund later paid his family compensation of 130 pounds sterling.
Commemoration[]
Montvila's brother donated a medallion in his memory, which was embedded in the wall of the Basilica of the Archangel St. Michael in Marijampolė. A copy of this medallion is in the Lithuanian Church in London, Ontario, Canada. In Liubavas, one of his last places of activity as a pastor, a memorial stick was erected for him.