Keturnaujiena Divine Mercy Chapel, Suodžiai

The chapel marks the site of reported apparitions of Jesus and Mary in 1969 to dairy worker Anele Matijosaitiene. Soviet authorities demolished her home, built an airstrip, and hospitalized her. The chapel was consecrated in 2002 after Lithuanian independence.

Anele Matijosaitiene was born in 1927 in Uzpjauniai village. A woman of deep piety, she worked at the Keturnaujiena collective farm dairy after the death of her husband Pranas in the mid-1960s. She prayed to Saint Anthony for strength and heard an inner voice saying 'Your prayer has been heard.'

On November 14, 1969, Jesus Christ appeared to her, resembling the Divine Mercy image. Ten days later, the Virgin Mary appeared, saying: 'My Son came here, and I came as well.' Word spread through the village and region. Pilgrims began arriving at her homestead. Healings were reported.

The Soviet response was swift. Authorities demolished her home, constructed an agricultural aviation airstrip over the site, and committed her to a psychiatric hospital for four months. The message was clear: claims of divine visitation would be treated as mental illness, and the ground would be repurposed for the state.

After Lithuanian independence in 1990, Matijosaitiene returned to the site. With donations from believers in Lithuania and the diaspora, the chapel was constructed on the exact spot of the apparition and consecrated in 2002. Matijosaitiene lived to see the chapel completed before her death in 2012.