History

Telšiai Priest Seminary was founded on October I-sth, 1927 under the initiative of Bishop Justinas Staugaitis. Since 1932, after expanding the study programme up to 8 years, the Seminary was annually attended by 110-120 students. After the Soviet occupation in 1940, the Seminary was closed and the rest of the students were transferred to Kaunas Interdiocesan Priest Seminary. In 1941 the German authorities permitted to re-establish Telšiai Priest Seminary but in 1946 the Soviet authorities closed it again. In 1989 Bishop Antanas Vaičius re-established the Seminary. After a lot of preparation, since 2001, Telšiai Priest Seminary has become an independent private university: an institution of higher education providing university education according to an integrated study programme of Religion. Ih 2009 the Seminary was affiliated with the Faculty of Theology of international Rome Lateran University (Italy).