The article discusses the situation of Petrašiūnai manor, which was located near Kaunas and owned by the Kaunas Benedictines, in 1639–1842 using visitation material and household inventory of Kaunas Benedictine Monastery. The research has used the earliest remaining monastery visitation material from 1700. The analysis of the detailed inventory dating 1797 has revealed exterior and interior of the wooden manor and the way its 20-volok estate was managed. It also discusses the attempts made to withdraw the manor from the nuns in accordance to the law of Kaduk at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Most sources and inventories available are related to economic condition of Petrašiūnai at the first half of the 19th century. The research has shown that the Benedictines themselves did not manage the estate as it was rented. The main problems were to find an honest tenant, to maintain the buildings, to ensure profitability and to maintain relationship with neighbours. The Benedictines often litigated about the problems related to the estate management both during the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the 19th century, continuing the nobility’s tradition to litigate.

Pasirėmus rankraštiniais šaltiniais straipsnyje atskleidžiamas 1687–1722 m. Vilniuje vyskupavusio ir dėl politinės veiklos istoriografijoje prieštaringai vertinamo Konstantino Kazimiero Bžostovskio poveikis Kauno benediktinių veiklai. Straipsnyje parodoma, kaip Vilniaus vyskupas rūpinosi dvasiniu ir materialiniu benediktinių gyvenimu, kokios reformos nagrinėtu periodu vyko Kauno benediktinių vienuolyne ir kaip tai atsiliepė vienuolių gyvenimui.

The Benedictines are widely known for their education activities as they established monastic schools. In addition to learning at home, these schools were the only alternative for girls at the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The aim of the present article is to collect the information from archive documents about teaching girls at Kaunas Benedictine monastery and to describe the activity of this school, providing data about the teachers, pupils, and teaching content, as well as describe the importance of school for women’s education. Even though it is likely that secular girls were taught at Kaunas Benedictine monastery since its foundation in 1624, the need for education strengthened during the Enlightenment. After the occupation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Russian Empire encouraged teaching girls at monasteries at the beginning as it sought more benefit of monasteries to the society. However, in 1835, it was forbidden to teach girls at monasteries because the Czarist government understood that nuns did not educate citizens loyal to the empire; they rather cherished noble and Catholic values. There are some data that the Benedictines in Kaunas continued education activities secretly. Archival sources provide the first information about secular teachers at the end of the 18th century. They were called secular magisters and taught girls the same things that they knew themselves: religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, and crafts. In 1834, geography, Russian, and Polish were also taught. The flourishing of the Benedictine school was reached in 1828–1835, when the highest number, 17 girls, were studying. A part of poor girls was supported and educated by the nuns, while parents paid for living and education of the others.