At “Lejas Daudziņi” in Tirza parish, Voldemārs Maldonis was born on July 18 – a farmer’s child who later helped shape the Faculty of Theology at the University of Latvia. He headed the Chair of Systematic Theology, lectured on the psychology of religion, dogmatics, and ethics, and studied the religious motifs in Jānis Poruks’s writing as well as Latvian folksong ideas about God. The dry date hides a fine arc: from a Vidzeme parish school to a university lecture hall.

Maldonis belonged to a generation of Latvian educators who, even before the founding of the Latvian state, connected schoolwork, church life, civic associations, and academic research. After 1919, his work at the University of Latvia helped develop Latvian-language theological terminology and teaching.