Stefanija Ladigienė

Stefanija Ladigienė née Paliulytė (23 January 1901 – 18 September 1967) was a Lithuanian Catholic women's activist and magazine editor.

Born to a family of a Lithuanian book smuggler, Ladigienė attended schools in Saint Petersburg and Tambov and later studied but did not graduate from Vytautas Magnus University.

When her husband general Kazys Ladiga was dismissed from the Lithuanian Army, the family moved to the Gulbinėnai Manor [lt] near Pasvalys where they established a large farm.

Priest Adolfas Sabaliauskas [lt] recorded several examples of Lithuanian folk songs and games from her parents.

[1] Ladigienė assisted Sabaliauskas and Finish professor Aukusti Niemi [fi] in editing Lithuanian texts of folk songs.

[3] Their house was visited by other Lithuanian activists, including poet Balys Sruoga with brothers, politician Ernestas Galvanauskas, priest Adolfas Sabaliauskas, teacher Jurgis Krikščiūnas, and others.

She later transferred to the Lithuanian girls' progymnasium of Žiburys Society which was evacuated from Marijampolė to Tambov due to World War I.

However, Vilnius was captured by Poland during the Żeligowski's Mutiny in October 1920 and Ladigienė had to relocate to Kaunas which became the temporary capital of Lithuania.

In Kaunas, she continued to edit Moteris and also worked as a correspondent for Lietuva [lt], the official daily of the Lithuanian government.

[2] She published two separate books Moteris apaštalas (The Woman Apostle; 1934) and Moterystės tikslai ir gėrybės (Womanhood's Goals and Wealth; 1938).

[5] In October 1920, she was elected to the board of the Lithuanian Women's Committee to Protect the Homeland (Lietuvos moterų komitetas Tėvynei ginti).

[1] When Ladiga was reassigned, she returned to Kaunas and in October 1925 enrolled at the Vytautas Magnus University where she studied philosophy, pedagogy, psychology, sociology for three years but did not graduate due to family matters.

[2] She was a member of the parliamentary commission on work and social security and signed several Christian Democratic interpellations,[2] but was not very active in the Seimas proceedings.

[4] She published articles in the short-lived weekly Tautos valia [lt] which laid ideaological ground for the coup d'état of December 1926 against the government of President Kazys Grinius.

[4] In August 1927, her husband Kazys Ladiga was dismissed from the military and the family moved to the Gulbinėnai Manor [lt] near Pasvalys.

[3] The apartment was visited by various Lithuanian activists, including bishop Mečislovas Reinys, poet Bernardas Brazdžionis, composer Konradas Kaveckas, politician Pranas Dovydaitis, spy Marcelė Kubiliūtė.

[1] In this apartment, despite being a widow in poor financial situation, Ladigienė hid Irena Veisaitė, a Jewish girl from the Kovno Ghetto, and treated her as her seventh child from early 1944 until the arrival of the Soviet troops in July 1944.

[1] At her apartment (now reduced to a single room),[1] she organized gatherings of Lithuanian intellectuals who wanted to reestablish Ateitis.