Catalog
50 Litų Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius (1920–2000)
| Issuer | Bank of Lithuania |
|---|---|
| Year | 2005 |
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| Weight | 28.28 g |
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| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents a facing three-quarter portrait of Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius, depicted in clerical vestments with a pectoral cross, rendered in fine relief against a mirror-polished field. To the left of the portrait appears the cardinal's coat of arms in low relief. The circular legend KARDINOLAS VINCENTAS SLADKEVIČIUS arcs along the upper periphery, with the dates 1920–2000 completing the inscription along the lower portion. The portrait captures the cardinal's dignified likeness in a realistic, medallic style. |
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| Additional information |
Vincentas Sladkevičius was appointed bishop by Pope John XXIII in 1957, then almost immediately suppressed by Soviet authorities who refused to recognize the consecration and forced him into internal exile in the small town of Nemunėlio Radviliškis for over two decades. He was permitted to return to active ministry only after Gorbachev's reforms created enough political space for the Kremlin to ease pressure on the Lithuanian Catholic Church. John Paul II elevated him to cardinal in 1988 — the first cardinal from Soviet-occupied Lithuanian territory — a move understood at the time as deliberate political signaling from Rome.