Pope Francis approved his beatification on 1 December 2016 and it was celebrated in Vilnius at the cathedral square on 25 June 2017.

He graduated from high school in Latvia and began his theological studies for the priesthood in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he was ordained on 17 March 1900.

Matulionis refused and was arrested and imprisoned from 1923 until 1925,[2][3] as part of the broader persecution centered on the "show trial" of Bishop Jan Cieplak.

[4] He was arrested a second time and sentenced to a decade of hard labor in the Arctic where the cold and damp climate damaged his health.

[4] In 1934 he met Pius XI in a private audience and the pope said to him: "It is an honor to the Lithuanian nation to have such a hero".

[3] Matulionis died on 20 August 1962 not long after a routine USSR KGB check of his apartment during which he was drugged.

[2][1] The beatification process began under Pope John Paul II on 2 April 1990 when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (CCS) titled him a Servant of God.

Pope Francis confirmed on 1 December 2016 that Matulionis had died "in odium fidei" (due to hatred of the faith) and approved the beatification.

[7] Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the CSS, presided at the beatification ceremony on 25 June 2017 in Vilnius.