Mikalojus Daukša
Mikalojus Daukša | |
|---|---|
| Administrator of the Diocese of Samogitia | |
Mikalojus Daukša in Varniai | |
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Diocese of Samogitia |
| Installed | 1570 |
| Term ended | 1610 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Between 1527 and 1538 |
| Died | January 1615 Varniai, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth |
| Buried | Varniai, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth |
| Nationality | Lithuanian |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | Renaissance humanist, one of the creators of Lithuanian writing, Lithuanian Catholic Church official |
| Alma mater | It is assumed that he studied at one of the Western European universities |
Mikalojus Daukša (other possible spellings include Mikalojus Daugsza, Polish: Mikołaj Dauksza and Mikolay Dowksza; after 1527 – 16 February 1613 in Medininkai) was a Lithuanian and Latin religious writer, translator and a Lithuanian Catholic Church official. He is best known as the first among Lithuania's humanists to underline the need to codify and promote the Lithuanian language over Chancery Ruthenian and Polish, which were in use in the Grand Duchy at the time. Furthermore, Daukša preached the ideas of Counter-Reformation and Renaissance humanism.
Daukša's Lithuanian translation of Jacob Ledesma's catechism (1595) became the first book in Lithuanian to be published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 2007, Daukša's translated catechism of Jacob Ledesma was included into the UNESCO's Lithuanian National Memory of the World Register and its copy is kept in the Vilnius University Library.