Kazimieras Masilionis, 79, is the only person in Lithuania with his own private house of prayer. He spared no expense to build a church in the village of Rokoniai in the District of Radviliškis.
Masilionis also prides himself on his charitable activities, supporting the young with study grants.
He acquired a degree of national fame last year, when the media took note of the millionaire landlord who flies ultralight planes as a hobby, drives good cars, and is a patron of the district. A year ago, he also planned to build a church.
“I’d be bored without things to do [...]. I get up in the morning and the first thing I do is make sure that the weather is good so that I can fly. [...] And in the evening, I go hunting,” he tells LRT RADIO programme Extraordinary People.
His idea to build a church for the village of Rokoniai was met with different opinions – but you can’t please everyone, Kazimieras says.
“Some people laughed: what an idiot, why did he build that church and waste a million, he would have been better off buying a villa somewhere. But I don’t need one – we have a house in the village, we have a place to stay in Palanga, and that’s enough,” says Masilionis.
He says he built the church the way he wanted, without seeking advice from the clergy or anyone else. The only person he consulted was his wife. “There is no competition, [...] we did not collect any fees, we do not have to answer to anyone, we do what we want,” he says.
In the end, the private church cost him around one million euros. The interior is decorated with oak sculptures and antique furniture brought from Germany. Kazimieras has even bought clothes for the priests so that they can come to celebrate mass without any worries.
Although people offer to donate to the church, the man says he does not want to accept donations, saying he and his wife have promised to God to build the church on their own.
However, there is now a donation box in the church. “There wouldn’t have been one, but they said it doesn’t count as a church without it. Pilgrims come, they want to donate to the church, but there is no place to put the money,” Masilionis laughs.
He has dedicated half of his church to Vytautas Landsbergis, one of the leaders of Lithuania’s independence movement and the first head of state, and the other half to former President Valdas Adamkus.
Neither is aware of having a church dedicated to them, Masilionis says, but that does not bother him.
“I feel very good in my soul, I can die peacefully now because I have fulfilled my promise – I said: whoever will expel the Russian army from Lithuania, I will repay them with whatever I can. And I did,” says Kazimieras.
Kazimieras once met one of his heroes, President Adamkus, in person. In the summer of 2010, well before the church was built, Adamkus and his wife visited Rokonys. Masilionis had installed an iron cross in the village, which Adamkus wanted to see. The former president also paid a visit to Masilionis’ home.
There is now even a plaque on the wall of the building commemorating the visit – installed with the president’s permission, Kazimieras assures.
Everyone in the village still remembers that day – they had never had such a distinguished visitor before.
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