The Order of Friars Minor (Latin: Ordo Fratrum Minorum – OFM) was founded by St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) after Pope Innocent III verbally approved his way of life in 1209 (1210). The Rule was definitively approved by Pope Gregory IX in the bull Solet Annuere on November 29, 1223.

The first Friars Minor arrived in Lithuania from Riga, where they had settled as early as 1238. It is believed that together with the Dominicans, they prepared King Mindaugas for baptism. It is unknown how long this took. However, this was not their only involvement in the political “game” for influence in Lithuania. In any case, their very presence in Riga was linked to their relationship with Archbishop Albrecht of Riga, who sought greater independence from the Livonian Order (for example, in Prussia, the Franciscans had to cooperate with the Teutonic Knights).

Therefore, the first bishop appointed for the territory of present-day Lithuania was the Franciscan Henry of Lützelburg—appointed in 1247 by Pope Innocent IV and consecrated as Bishop of Semigallia by the Archbishop of Riga. His territory nominally spanned the lands between the Daugava, Venta, Nemunas, and Neris rivers, claimed by the Livonian Order. Four years later, in 1251, this territory was somewhat redistributed (Semigallia was attached to Riga), and Henry became the Bishop of Courland (holding the position until Mindaugas’s assassination in 1263). That same year, on July 17, the Pope appointed him and the Dominican Bishop Henry of Ösel as guardians of the newly baptized Mindaugas. Both participated in the coronation ceremonies.

Bishop Henry of Lützelburg built the churches of St. Michael and St. John in Klaipėda and 11 more in the Courland region; however, Christian, a priest of the Teutonic Order who had sworn allegiance to the Archbishop of Riga, was appointed and consecrated as the new bishop of Lithuania following Mindaugas’s baptism. Franciscan Bishop Henry, alongside Riga Franciscans Henry (guardian), Thomas, Adolf, and Andrew, also witnessed the signing of Mindaugas’s land grants to the Livonian Order in 1253 and 1260.

A subsequent result of collaboration between the Archbishop of Riga and the Grand Duke of Lithuania was a proposal for Lithuania’s baptism. When the Archbishop received a positive response in 1298, Franciscans and Dominicans were sent once again as missionaries. Under Grand Duke Vytenis, in 1312, the Franciscans permanently established themselves in Vilnius. At that time, the Archbishop of Riga was the Franciscan Friedrich von Pernstein (1304–1340). Likely due to this, the Franciscans became scribes for Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania and settled in Navahrudak as well.

When Lithuania officially accepted baptism in 1387, the first two Bishops of Vilnius were also Franciscans: Andrew Vasila (1388–1398) and Jacob Plichta (1398–1407), the latter being of Lithuanian descent. Around the time of the second bishop’s tenure, the first Franciscan sanctuary was established in Kaunas—the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Vytautas the Great Church).

Following the branching of the Order of Friars Minor, Observant Franciscans arrived in Lithuania from Poland in 1468. In Kraków in 1453, they had established a monastery named after St. Bernardino of Siena (canonized that same year), one of the most prominent Observant preachers, from whom this branch acquired the name “Bernardines” in Poland and Lithuania. It is known that the Observant Franciscans first arrived in Kaunas, and only a year later (1469) came to Vilnius, where they initially began settling.

Construction of the brick church and monastery in Kaunas began around 1492 and was completed around 1504 (organized by Guardian Almanas). In the 17th century, the church and monastery suffered three fires (1603, 1624, and 1668).

After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Kaunas came under Tsarist Russian rule. Due to support for the 1831 uprising against the Tsar, the Lithuanian St. Casimir Bernardine Province (established in 1729) was banned in 1842, Provincial Fr. Domininkas Šukevičius was prohibited from operating, and the monks were placed under episcopal jurisdiction. However, the province was completely liquidated in 1864 when all other monasteries were closed, leaving only the one in Kretinga.

In 1842, the Kaunas monastery church was assigned to the chaplain of the Kaunas Gymnasium, and the monastery buildings were handed over to the city magistrate. However, records show that 9 priests and 3 brothers still lived in the monastery in 1843, and by 1851 there were only 8, so the exact date when the last monk left the monastery remains unknown. What is clear is that between 1864 and 1865, the Samogitian Diocesan Priest Seminary was transferred here.

Following Lithuania’s independence, an archdiocese was established in Kaunas in 1926, and the seminary came under its jurisdiction, where it remained until January 12, 1941, when the Red Army intruded. During the Nazi occupation, the seminary was able to function freely until the second Soviet occupation, during which the former Bernardine monastery (in 1945) and church (in 1950) were nationalized. A Latin inscription surviving behind the high altar testifies that “on March 5, 1950, the Lord left this sanctuary.”

After Lithuania regained independence, the Kaunas City Municipality took over the church in 1992, and in 1993, the transfer of the monastery to the reviving Lithuanian Friars Minor began, with friars taking up residence in 1995. In the restored second floor of the monastery, on the site of the former first Gothic sacristy, a semi-private monastery chapel was set up. The church itself was reclaimed by the St. Casimir Province of Lithuania of the Order of Friars Minor only after 2005. During the feast of St. George in 2008—patron of the church and second patron of Lithuania—a temporary altar was consecrated, and since then the friars have moved their Sunday celebrations into the church.