Jurgis Matulaitis and Lithuanian Sociology in the Tsarist Russian Empire

The article explores the sources of the Lithuanian sociology in the Russian Empire in the first decade of the 20th century. It surveys the history of the emergence of sociology as discipline in St. Petersburg Roman Catholic Spiritual Academy, where a number of Lithuanian worked and studied. The primary focus is on J. Matulaitis' academic activities and social thought in the period of 1907-1909. He was the first professor to teach sociology at this higher institution; in addition, J. Matulaitis is known as the renovator and the founder of monasteries and Bishop of Vilnius; in 1987 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. This research aims to evaluate the character of his lectures, his activities in social science education, which mainly can be revealed through the organization of courses on sociology, as well as to estimate his contribution to the development of Lithuania's science of sociology. Adapted from the source document.