Konstancja Skirmuntt

[1] Born to a noble family of deep roots in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Skirmuntt spent most of her life in or near Pinsk.

Skirmuntt was born in 1851 in Kalodnaje [be] in the Pinsky Uyezd of the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Stolin District of Belarus).

[5] During the tenure of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, she managed to protect a Catholic church from destruction in Haradzišča, a village near Pinsk.

[4] In 1910, together with Marian Zdziechowski, she unsuccessfully worked to bring a Lithuanian delegation to the 500th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Grunwald in Kraków.

For her works and efforts, she was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by the Vatican and an honorary doctorate by the Vytautas Magnus University.

[2][4] She identified as a Lithuanian, but spoke Polish and supported a union between Poland and Lithuania in the historic traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (see: Krajowcy).

She criticized the Żeligowski's Mutiny (by which Poland captured Vilnius from Lithuania) and Polish policies toward ethnic minorities.

Konstancja Skirmuntt