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Ordo Sanctissimae Trinitatis et Captivorum / Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Captives

St John of Matha (1160–1213) and St Felix of Valois (1127–1212) founded the Trinitarian Order together during the era of the crusades. From the very beginning, the brotherhood, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, worked on the most outstanding mission – the ransom of Christians held captive by Muslims.

The Trinitarians were invited to Lithuania by the chief army commander, the Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Voivode of Vilnius, Kazimierz Jan Sapieha. In 1693, representatives of the “Spanish” reformed branch of the order arrived in Vilnius. From 1694 to 1696, a brick monastery was built. The Trinitarian Church of the Holy Redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth, was consecrated in 1716. The Antakalnis convent became the leading centre in the St Joachim Trinitarian Province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth established in 1726. The monastery also functioned as a house of studies for Trinitarian clerics. Their church won fame for a miraculous statue of Jesus of Nazareth. The Bishop of Vilnius, Konstanty Kazimierz Brzostowski, established the second Trinitarian monastery in 1700. He assigned land for the monastery in the vicinity of the Verkiai Palace that belonged to the bishops and he renamed the location as Trinapolis. That is where the Trinitarian novitiate of St Joachim’s Province was housed. The monastery was abolished in 1832. Its buildings were converted into garrisons and a hospital, and later given over to the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery in Antakalnis survived the longest in the entire former province of St Joachim until 1864, when it was suppressed and began to serve the needs of the Russian army. The church was given to the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Trinitarians never returned to Lithuania.