During a recent vacation to the Baltics in Europe, Stacy Rausch, former Catholic Herald production coordinator, had Latvia on her schedule.
In 1996, former diocesan priest Father Antons Justs was named bishop there and died four years ago. Rausch graciously agreed to find his grave. Bishop Anton Justs served in the Arlington diocese in Alexandria, Great Falls, and Vienna, and he was well-loved.
Rausch was on a tour of nearby Lithuania to visit the Hill of Crosses, a pilgrimage site. During the ride she asked the guide if he knew of Bishop Antons Justs and if it would be possible to find his grave. They were scheduled to stop in Jelgava as part of the tour. She said the guide “went above and beyond to find the church where he is buried and called the church to make sure it was accessible.”
“As Jelgava isn’t that big, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Virgin Mary was just a few blocks from the Russian Orthodox Church on our schedule, and our group was game to join me on my crusade,” Rausch said.
Father Justs was born in Latvia Nov. 22, 1931. He and his family left during World War II. He began studying for the priesthood in 1949 in seminaries in Louvain, Belgium, and Innsbruck, Austria. He was ordained a priest July 11, 1960, in Belgium.
In 1962, he was incardinated into the Diocese of Richmond, and served at Star of the Sea Church in Virginia Beach and St. Francis Church in Staunton, before being incardinated into the Arlington diocese in 1974. He served at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria as pastor (1973-79) and St. Catherine of Siena Church in Great Falls (1979-89), before being assigned to St. Mark Church in Vienna in 1989 until his retirement in 1992.
In 1990, when he celebrated the 30th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, parishioners at St. Mark offered him a ticket to return to Latvia but at the time the country was still under Communist control. He finally returned to Latvia in 1991. “The people asked me to come back to teach in the seminary,” Bishop Justs said at that time. He accepted what he thought was a temporary assignment as a seminary professor in Riga, Latvia. He was named seminary rector and in 1996 Pope John Paul II named him bishop of the new Diocese of Jelgava. He was ordained a bishop Jan. 6, 1996, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome by Pope John Paul II and installed in his new diocese March 25, 1996.
Rausch found the cathedral in Jelgava and Bishop Justs’ grave in the Peace Cemetery. In the courtyard, “there were bright red flowers planted in front of the black marble headstone engraved with a cross and the Jelgava diocesan seal,” she said. The headstone includes Bishop Justs’ date of birth, priesthood ordination, ordination as bishop and his death.
“Inside the church, there are photos of Bishop Justs’ ordination as bishop in Rome by Pope John Paul II, and him meeting Pope Benedict XVI,” she said.
When Bishop Justs celebrated the 50th anniversary of his priesthood ordination in 2010, he reflected on his early life in Latvia, where he received his first Communion in 1940. A Communist agent arrested the Catholic priest who celebrated the Mass, Bishop Justs said. He remembered thinking to himself at the time, “Someone should take the priest’s place.” He never imagined it would be him.
