Kunigas Juozapas Čaplikas - lietuvybės puoselėtojas, tautosakos rinkėjas ir skelbėjas, knygnešys
ENPriest Juozapas Čaplikas (1876-1961) was born in the village Samūniškės, Merkinė County. In 1880 his father, Petras Čaplikas, bought some land of Ryliškiai manor and moved there with his family. J. Čaplikas started his education with a secret teacher, so-called 'daraktorius', then he attended an elementary school in Merkinė. In 1893 he graduated from a male high school in Suvalkai. In 1895 he joined the Seminary in Vilnius and on July 16, 1899 he was ordained. He was a vicar, then a parish priest in many parishes. For supporting the Lithuanian activities he was sent to the most remote parish of the diocese: to lwia (Belarus) and Sidra (Poland). He was a parish priest in Kazokiškės for 19 years. In the years 1948-1955 J. Čaplikas lived in exile in Siberia. J. Čaplikas collaborated with Lithuanian smugglers of books. One of them was Vincas Šlekys, who helped Juozapas to organize the unit of Lithuanian underground press and books distribution from Prussia in the village Gudakiemis. Juozapas collected and registered folk songs in the local Dzūkų dialect of the region Ryliškiai and Merkinė.Later in 1899, he published the book "Trakiečių dzūkų dainos" (Songs of Dzūkai from Trakai Region) under the pseudonym J. Šimtakojis. Its publisher was priest Antanas Milukas and it was printed in Vincas Šlekys' printing house in the United States. In 1907 Lithuanian Scientific Society was established in Vilnius. There was J. Čaplikas' book in its library and it was used by eminent linguists and folklorists of Lithuania and foreign countries, such as: J. Basanavičius, V Krėvė, A. Smetona, and A.R. Niemi (Finland), E. Volters (Latvia), G. Nesselmann (Germany) and others. In 1918 J. Čaplikas built a small chapel in Ryliškiai. In 1924 he finished building Church of St. Monica. Thanks to the efforts of the Čaplikas family a school was built in Ryliškiai in 1938. Priest J. Čaplikas died at the age of 85 in Akmuo parish in Varėna region. He was buried in the courtyard of the parish church in Akmuo.
