In 1468 the Polish province Cathedral Chapter, having secured the support of the ruler Kazimierz Jagiellon (Kazimieras Jogailaitis) and the permission of the Pope, decided to settle Bernardine (Franciscan observants) friars in the Lithuanian Grand Duchy (LGD). It was decided that the first monasteries would be established in Vilnius and Kaunas – the strategic towns of the LGD. The official Kaunas Bernardine monastery founding paper was compiled on 4 April 1471 in Vilnius. Stanislaw Sudiwoj (Stanislovas Sudivojaitis), Grodno’s Elder and Kazimierz Jagiellon’s (Kazimieras Jogailaitis) marshal, presented the Bernardines with his inherited estate with a garden near Kaunas castle on the shore of the River Nemunas, and it was on this land plot where the St. George the Martyr Church and Bernardine Monastery were constructed. In 1530 Pope Clement VII established the Lithuanian province, on the request from Lithuanians (the province comprised of Kaunas, Vilnius, Tikocin and Polock monasteries) and so St. George the Martyr Church and Bernardine Monastery became an integral part of Kaunas.

Vaida Kamuntavičienė