The temple of the Benedictine nuns in Vilnius has served as a concert hall since 2009. For more than 300 years, the place resounded with music, but prayer music. For the nuns did not stop praising God, interceding for the people of Vilnius and Lithuania.

The architecture of the temple and its decoration are among the most splendid 18th century artistic creations not only in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but also in the former Republic of Poland.

The Benedictine nuns were brought to the Lithuanian capital around 1620 by Mikolaj Horodyski, a Vytautsky ensign, and his wife Katherine from a monastery in Nesvizh (Belarus). Initially, they lived in the Horodyski's Gothic tenement house, which was later incorporated into the monastery's modern buildings. After the unexpected death of the founders, it seemed that they would have to abandon Vilnius, but they were taken care of by the Bishop of Vilnius, Eustachy Vollovich (1572-1630), and his brother Peter , Chamberlain of Troki, whose wife, Catherine of Horodyski, was their guardian. These were people involved in religious renewal after the Protestant era, supporting the nuns. Initially, the nuns had a wooden church (consecrated 1632), to which the above-mentioned chamberlain founded the Chapel of Divine Providence in 1636 . As the monastery grew richer, the Benedictine nuns built a brick monastery and temple, consecrated in 1650, which was destroyed during the Muscovite occupation (1655-1660).

In 1684, Franciszka Galecka, who took the name of Scholastica , became the prioress . Under her reign , the church was rebuilt and consecrated in 1703 by Bishop Konstantin Kazimierz Brzostowski (1644-1722). The costly construction, designed by an unknown but prominent architect, would not have been possible if the only daughters of Felix Jan Pac (after 1615-1702) and Joanna von Syberg zu Wischling (d. 1692), Sybilla (in the order Magdalena) and Anna (in the order Marianna), had not joined the order. They bequeathed to the monastery the villages of Dzisna, Ostrowiec, Dzieszkowczyna and the town of Tverech, as well as a large number of items made of copper, tin, silver, gold, as well as horses and cattle, and, not least, cash. After the death of Mother Galecka, the nuns elected Sybil Pacovna (1658-1741) as vicar.

The church, built during the reign of Rev. Galecka, has been largely preserved to this day. It consists of a semicircular single-span chancel and a three-span nave, articulated by pairs of Tuscan columns supporting wide gourds, which in turn support a barrel vault with lunettes. The walls of the nave incorporate panels and window openings topped with simple cornices, with ear-shaped frames. According to Aleksander Stankiewicz, a researcher of the temple, the spatial layout of the Vilnius building refers to the Roman temple of S. Salvatore in Lauro, which was copied earlier in the parish church in Golub (1626-1634) and became an inspiration for the Jesuit churches of Sts. It was also the inspiration for the Jesuits' churches of St Ignatius and St Francis Xavier in Chomutov, Bohemia (designed by Carlo Lurago, after 1663) and the Theatines' church of St Kajetan in Munich (design of the nave by Agostino Barelli, 1663-1674, work continued by Enrico Zuccalli until 1690). At the time, there was no architect in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania capable of designing such a sophisticated building as the Benedictine temple. Certainly, the design was drawn up in the capital Warsaw, and the Pacs , the royal courtiers, were probably the intermediaries in providing the plans .

During her reign, Sybilla Pacówna extended the monastery and repaired the temple , which had been damaged by fire in 1737. After her death, the construction work was continued by the prioress Joanna Rejtanówna (until the end of 1743), who hired the architect Jan Krzysztof Glaubitz (ca. 1710-1767). The contract concluded with him provided for the erection of a façade with two towers and a gable over the presbytery. The stucco decoration was to be done by Jan Hedel. Glaubitz also built a new chapel of the Divine Providence at the church (before 1746) with money donated to the nuns by George Vollovich .

The architect, a Lutheran, was hired to work on the Benedictine nuns' church at a time when he was completing his first major commission in Vilnius - the construction of a Lutheran church in German Street (1739-1743). Thus, he regarded the commission for the nuns as a prestigious one , allowing him to demonstrate his skills in another religious environment as well. The gable of the church is the first in a series of similar works, while the Divine Providence Chapel in particular deserves special mention . The religious brotherhood associated with it was founded in 1705 by Sybil Pacovna. The chapel was given an exceptionally expressive and rich form. It was built on a circular plan inscribed in a hexagon with frame and panelled wall divisions in the interior. The two-stage dome canopy is integrated with a hexagonal drum on the outside and a circular drum on the inside. The wall opposite the entrance is occupied by an architectural altar decorated with statues of saints and the symbol of Divine Providence in the finial.

The temple's five-storey towers embrace the three-axis and three-storey façade. It features the statues of St Benedict and St Scholastica and a complex heraldic programme, which was designed by Sybil Pacovna , as it perfectly shows the patronage of the monastery by the closely related Pac and Wollowicz families. In the main portal, whose abutment is decorated with the coats of arms of the Eagle and Pogo, framed by panoplies, with a banner bearing the inscription: "PRO ECCLESIAE TRIUMPHANTI PUGNAMUS IN MILITANTI" (For the Triumphant Church we fight in the army). This maxim referred to spiritual warfare and the victory of the Risen Christ over Satan as a military success, popular in the content of religious sermons of the time. The knight of Christ ('miles Christianus') according to such a topos was becoming every believer, including, of course, the nuns themselves. The use of militaria in the decoration , on the other hand, referred to the quite real defence of the Catholic faith against the invasions of the Protestant Swedes and Orthodox Muscovites, which regularly troubled the Republic.

The St Benedict's cross, or so-called caravaca , located in the finial of the portal , referred to the tradition associated with this sign, which was supposed to protect against diseases and charms. The form of the cross referred to the reliquary of the Holy Cross kept in the Spanish town of Santa Cruz de Caravaca. During the period of the Council of Trent, the Benedictines adopted the caravaca as the coat of arms of their order, and Sybilla Pacovna took care of the development of its cult.

In the third storey , on the axis of the façade, there is a cartouche with a metal-made Gozdawa coat of arms (double lily) of the Pacs framed by a depiction of a two-towered temple and a building in the central plan and two metal branches of the vine. The depiction is accompanied by the inscription: "VINEAE MEAE NEC LILIA DESUNT" (There is no shortage of lilies in my vineyards), which refers to the almost unending number of nuns. The façade also features the Bogoria coat of arms of the Vollovichs. The two daughters of Wincenty Piotr (d. 1737), referendary of Lithuania, and Anna of Pacs (d. 1726), Franciszka (née Anna) and Petronela Ludgarda (née Marianna) also joined the Benedictine nunnery , and the first of them even became a nun. Representatives of the Wołłowicz family supported the monastery financially and were also buried in the crypts of the church, as evidenced by the epitaph of Jerzy Wołłowicz and Elżbieta née Ważyńska.

Between 1753 and 1759, during the reign of Duchess Anna Mechtylda Hilzen, wooden, marbled and stuccoed altars were erected, designed and executed by Jan Hedel. They feature paintings by the renowned painter Szymon Czechowicz . A prominent place is occupied by an altar dedicated to Our Lady, the so-called Pacovski or Founder's Altar, at which masses were celebrated for benefactors from the Pacov family. These are among the most beautiful altars in Vilnius. The pulpit crowned with the personification of the Ecclesia is also of high artistic quality. In the western part of the church there is not only a choir with an organ, but in front of it there are two musical balconies. This is because the Benedictines paid great attention to the liturgy and its musical setting.

In the 19th century, the Benedictine nunnery suffered from repressions by the Russian authorities , but as the only female monastery in Vilnius, it was not closed down. Instead, it was liquidated by the Soviet authorities in 1946. A museum storehouse was organised in the temple, while the monastery was turned into offices and private flats. In 1986, a decision was taken to restore the church and to use its interior as a concert hall. The work was then undertaken by the Polish PKZ. In one of the rooms of the monastery, the restorers chiseled into the plaster the inscription "LET IT BE / HERE WE REMEMBER THE SICKNESS / THAT WE HAVE / TOLD THE SIERPA / AND THE MILL".