Postcard mailed by the initiator and builder of the church at Žarėnai, Rev. Juozapas Lomanas.
Žarėnai 1922 is a township with a previous manor in central Žemaitija, 20 km south of Telšiai. In WWI, during the German push into Žemaitija and Courland which started on April 27, 1915, Žarėnai (as Zorany) was rushed through by units of 6. Reserve-Division on April 29. During the German army’s retreat from the East in late 1918, Red Army’s vanguard was stopped some 20 – 30 km east of Žarėnai. This enabled formation of modest forms of local self-administration.
In the czarist period Žarėnai had a post office Zhorany which was reconstructed, possibly with the assistance of the local municipality, in early 1922 (?). Details, including early personnel, are not known. The earliest stamps used seem to be the Sėjėjas Issue.
In the absence of a formal postmarker, cancelling was first done by deleting stamps cross-wise. A regular registration cachet of the new double-frame type was provided in ca. 1922.
There may have been other modes of cancelling and postal marking, but a formal calendar-type postmarker was supplied only later, possibly 1923.
Cancelling in MS crosswise:
17–VIII–1922 reg. cover 589 to Austria. Kestutis 2a x 7 = foreign letter 8a, foreign registration 6a. [colln. ?]