Antanas Vienažindys (1841–1892), also known by his pen name Vienužis, was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and poet.

While only a handful of his poems survive, he is considered the most famous Lithuanian poet between Antanas Baranauskas (1850s) and Maironis (1890s).

[1] Born into a family of affluent Lithuanian peasants, Vienažindys was educated at the Panevėžys Gymnasium and Varniai Priest Seminary.

[6] His grandfather was a free peasant and owned 12 dessiatins of land in Gipėnai [lt] on the Sartai lake.

[10] After a year, Norbertas decided to pursue studies of mathematics at the Saint Petersburg University and left the seminary.

[12] When the uprising failed, Tsarist authorities implemented various Russification policies, including banning Lithuanian publications and moving the seminary from Varniai to Kaunas.

[13] The Tsarist authorities also deported Rožė Stauskaitė, Vienažindys' love interest, and her family to the Samara Governorate for participating in the uprising.

[17] The bishop responded by reassigning Vienažindys to a poor and neglected parish in Vainutas and then to distant Braslaw in present-day Belarus in fall 1873.

There were constant conflicts and friction with the Eastern Orthodox priests over mixed marriages, baptisms, and funerals.

Tsarist police became suspicious of his activities, Vienažindys avoided further troubles by bribing the policemen.

[26] Several poems sometimes attributed to Vienažindys were published in Lithuanian periodicals Varpas, Ūkininkas, and Vienybė lietuvninkų in late 1891 to 1893.

[27] The first poetry collection was published in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, in 1894 by Juozapas Žebrys, vicar of Akmenė and Vienažindys' friend, who emigrated to the United States.

[30] Similar to Antanas Strazdas, poems by Vienažindys spread among the people by word of mouth and by manuscripts distributed to friends and relatives.

Many poems and folk songs are attributed to Vienažindys but the true author is difficult to establish.

[31] Vienažindys left a manuscript with a compilation of 26 poems titled Dainos lietuvininko Žemaičiuose (Song of a Lithuanian in Samogitia).

Another eight poems were collected from friends and relatives and are confirmed to be Vienažindys' texts by textological analysis.

Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis claimed that after the funeral, a gymnasium teacher from Warsaw selected almost one hundred of poems and other material from Vienažindys' archives and promised to write his biography.

[16] Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas claimed that poems composed later in life were intentionally destroyed by Vincentas as unsuitable for a priest.

[3] These poems include a light flirt with a love interest and a comical paraphrasing of the academic song Gaudeamus igitur.

[34] Others harshly criticize an alcoholic man, reflect on worries of a bride, or poke fun at a priest caught fraternizing with women.

They describe past wounds, desperate desire to escape the misery, and thoughts that only death can bring peace.

[3][42] In his memoir, Vienažindys wrote that while he was a student at the priest seminary, he would lock himself in a closet, let himself experience intense emotions, and would come out with a new poem.

[3] Most other poems had clear societal goals to propagate the ideas of the Lithuanian National Revival or encourage antigovernment sentiments.

[3] Vienažindys also wrote about love for his homeland, but these patriotic feelings are not grand and majestic declarations; they are personal and intimate adorations.

Specific similarities can be traced to works of Taras Shevchenko, Władysław Syrokomla, Aleksey Koltsov.

He more widely masculine endings (stress on the last syllable), iambic metre, varied stanzas with modifications to refrains.

Only after World War I, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas collected material for his biography and published it together with other lectures on Lithuanian literature.

[54] A poetic play about Vienažindys Rožės pražydėjimas tamsoj (The Blooming of the Rose in Darkness) by Romualdas Granauskas was first staged in 1978 by the Lithuanian State Youth Theatre [lt].

[55] A marble monument to Vienažindys by sculptor Gediminas Jokūbonis [lt] was erected in Mažeikiai in 1987.

[56] At the same time, the school established a small museum dedicated to Vienažindys and local history.