The Lithuanian author and art historian Kristina Sabaliauskaitė received the regalia of an honorary citizen of Vilnius in the Town Hall on Tuesday.
“Kristina is the kind of person who can not only show, but also inspire and follow. Thank you, it is a great honour to be in a city where Kristina Sabaliauskaitė is an honorary citizen,” Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said while presenting the medal of Honorary Citizen of Vilnius to the writer.
Sabaliauskaitė has lived in London since 2002.
She shot to fame in 2008 with her debut novel Silva Rerum, followed by three more books in the series. The historical saga, mostly set in Vilnius, follows the fortunes of a noble family in the 17- and 18-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
More recently, Sabaliauskaitė published a two-volume novel about Catherine I of Russia, the wife of Emperor Peter the Great.
“I feel like a girl to whom her lover has publicly confessed his love,” Sabaliauskaitė said during the ceremony. “This is my Valentine’s Day date with my beloved Vilnius at the Town Hall, or maybe I should say Vilnia or Wilno, because the name of our capital has different genders in different languages.”
“This city is important to many peoples, and in their languages the name can be neuter, masculine or feminine,” the writer said.
“Today is a significant day not only for me, but for all the women of Vilnius – so significant that the Medal of Honorary Citizen will have to be restruck so that the word Pilietė is inscribed on it,” she said.
Pilietė is the feminine form of the noun Pilietis, the Lithuanian for “citizen”.
“This is not for myself, but for 50 percent of humanity in general, for all you women of Vilnius and Lithuania, so that the contribution of the women who create the cities and the state of Lithuania can finally gain equal recognition.”
“I am very happy to have put the feminine ending on the medal and to have broken another glass ceiling for all of us,” she added.
Vilnius has been naming its honorary citizens since 1996.
In recent years, this title has been awarded to former President Valdas Adamkus, Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania’s first post-independence leader, Julius Sasnauskas, a priest and dissident, and Viktoras Butkus and Danguolė Butkienė, the founders of the MO Museum.
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