Mikalojus Daukša

Who was Mikalojus Daukša?

Mikalojus Daukša was a Lithuanian and Latin religious writer, translator and a Catholic church official. He is best known as the first among Lithuania's humanists to underline the need to codify and promote the Lithuanian language over Chancery Ruthenian and Polish, which were in use in the Grand Duchy at the time. Daukša's Lithuanian translation of Jacob Ledesma's catechism became the first book in Lithuanian to be published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Born probably after 1527 somewhere in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Daukša probably received his education in Vilnius and at one of the Western European Universities. He spoke several languages and had a personal library including books by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philip Melanchthon.

Daukša was a canon of Medininkai and an official member of the Samogitia. Under the auspices of bishop Merkelis Giedraitis, he translated the catechism by the Spanish Jesuit theologist Jacobo Ledesma. The book, translated from the Polish translation by Jakub Wujek, was published in 1595, and became one of the means to fight paganism. Paganism was at that time still practiced in Lithuania.