Where would the families of these "poor suiciders" have to bury them? It was said: "if there was a misfortune in your family - a suicide, a "unbaptised" person, or a victim of blood feud - you had to walk away from it yourself." What is the importance of all this? Let us find the threshold at the seminary fence. Such unfortunates were buried by their families beneath the thresholds of their homes, with the threshold itself acting as a barrier to the afterlife, while the rest of the cursed were left to suffer. However, it is thought that more than just ordinary people were buried beneath the doorway. Pacas, founder of Pažaislis, is buried in a separate crypt beneath the church's threshold.
Pažaislis held museums throughout the time. The Pacas' souls were thought to be restless because, after they were buried, the sisters of St Casimir simply placed their bodies in a sack. The Pacas' memory goes on as long as they are prayed for in church. The founders' wish to keep their remains in the Pažaislis Church and pray for their souls is partially accomplished. Their remains are still preserved in some of the church's niches today. If there were not enough burial niches, the remains of a deceased monk were bluntly taken and placed in the common ossuary. The most significant aspect was not the location or way the bones were stored, but the eternal prayer for the soul of the deceased.
As for deaths... In prior ages, when the family system was still popular, the blood feud principle was commonly used. This is the execution of a criminal by handing him over to the victim's relatives. Such established customs were completely natural. Executions were carried out in the same or comparable manner in both Germanic and Slavic tribes.
Political opponents were frequently executed by the victorious rival, with or without a staged trial, as the state became more centralised. One of history's most famous episodes is Mindaugas' ascension, during which a huge number of Lithuanian Dukes, including his own relatives, were assassinated in various ways on his orders.
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