Archivum Lithuanicum

The Kvėdarna Parish (Šilalė District) Poster of Jesus Christ Heart Fraternity SPASABAS PASYLECAWOIMA SZWĘCZIAUSE SZYRDEY PONA JEZUSA Broctwoy Saldziausios Szyrdies Chrystusa (The Manner of Commitment to the Holiest Heart of Lord Jesus in the Fraternity of the Sweetest Heart of Christ) preserved in the archive of the Kretinga Franciscan monastery was not recorded in the Lithuanian Bibliography. The Poster was published in Vilnius by the printer Abromas Dvorčius (most probably in 1848). Until now, the activity of this fraternity in Kvėdarna has not been recorded either. A similar document of that fraternity in another parish (Rozalimas parish) had been printed four years earlier, in 1844, and has survived till now. A comparison of the two documents (from Rozalimas and Kvėdarna) uncovers significant textual differences. Even if their structures are comparable (they both contain a part of commitment to the fraternity and both list obligations and indulgences), the remaining content and the linguistic features differ substantially. The documents must have been prepared by different persons. The dialectal peculiarities of the Kvėdarna Poster suggest that it must have been prepared by a southern Samogitian (from the southern part of the Lithuanian Lowlands).