50 litas coin issued to commemorate the 200th birth Anniversary of Motiejus Valanciaus (1801-1875)
 

Motiejus Valančius, Muotiejos Valončė[citation needed] polonized form Maciej Wołonczewski also known by his pen-namesJoteika and Ksiądz Maciek; 1801 - 1875) was a Catholic bishop of Samogitia, historian and one of the best known Lithuanian writers of the nineteenth century. Motiejus Valančius, Muotiejos Valončė was born February 16, 1801, into a well-to-do peasant family in Narsėnai village, county of Kretinga, on February 16, 1801. Early in his youth, he had his baptismal records altered to indicate noble birth; the family name was Polonized to Wołonczewski. This practice, not uncommon among prosperous villagers, was a means of providing educational opportunities otherwise denied to peasant children. In 1816 he entered the Dominican school at Žemaičių Kalvarija and six years later began his studies at the Theological Seminary in Varniai. He transferred to the Vilnius Priest Seminary in 1824, from which he graduated in 1828. Ordained a priest that same year, he spent the next six years teaching religion in Belarus. In 1834 he returned to Lithuania to take up a teaching position at the Kražiai secondary school. In 1840 he was assigned to the Vilnius Theological Academy, where he lectured in pastoral theology and biblical archaeology and where he earned his doctorate in theology in 1842. That same year on orders of the Tsar, the Academy, it teaching staff and student body, was moved to St. Petersburg, Russia. Valančius came back to Lithuania because of health problems in 1845 and was appointed rector of the Varniai Theological Seminary, serving in this capacity until 1850. Having been absent from Lithuania during the anti-Russian uprising in 1831, Valančius was considered to be relatively apolitical, and thus the Russian government did not object when he was proposed as Episcopal candidate for the see of Samogitia.