Presided over by Bishop Eugenijus Bartulis, the diocesan phase of the cause of beatification of Barbora Umiastauskaite (1620-1648) was solemnly opened in the cathedral of Siauliai on 24 September. The young woman, nicknamed “Zagariete” because she lived in the town of Zagare, in north-west Lithuania, has been venerated for centuries by the people, who flock to her tomb in the church in the town to implore her intercession. In 1755 Bishop Antanas Tiskevicius referred to Rome seven miracles attributed to the young Barbora, and the miraculous cures attributed to her intercession have been countless since 1833. The body of “Zagariete”, which remained miraculously intact despite a fire that gutted the church, was recovered during the Soviet occupation in 1940. But of its present whereabouts, reports the Lithuanian Church, nothing more is known.
