The first church in Ariogala was built by Grand Duke Vytautas in 1416. In 1542 it received a jurisdiction of 7 families and three unsettled plots as a gift. Later, the village of Kunigiškiai settled there. The church was rebuilt in 1547.

In the 16th century there was a parish school in Ariogala. In 1609 Zigmantas Vaza ordered Sebastijonas Kęstortas who was one of the officials of Ariogala to finish building and repairing the church of Ariogala. The church was erected after a few years and it was still without a roof and decaying. The church burnt down in 1690 and it was rebuilt in 1726. In 1807 the church burnt down again and was rebuilt in 1813. The church building was extended in 1852.

The poet and the priest Anupras Jacevičius read the proclamation of rebels in the church in 1863. Later, he was deported for reading the proclamation. In 1884 he came back to Ilūkstė (Latvia).

In 1909-1914 there was a Lithuanian Catholic Association of Soberness in activity.

The church was burnt down during the Russian-German battles in 1915. The bell tower, stock, expensive dishes and liturgical clothes were also burnt. In postwar years the church service took place in another stone building.

The Construction of the Church in 1926-1939

A small town of Ariogala suffered a lot during the 1st years of WWI. In 1915 after the old church was destroyed, people used to pray in a warehouse. In 1926 seven designs of churches (including Ariogala) were confirmed by the Building Inspectorate of the Ministry of the Interior. The construction of a new stone church was started in the same year. The walls of the church were being built till 1930. The State supported the construction of the church but still there was a constant shortage of money. On 27 October, 1927 the Ministry assigned a lot of 15000Lt of the construction. On 18 February, 1928 there was same wood given for installments for 6000Lt worth. In autumn of the 1928 the Committee of the Church Building appealed to the President Antanas Smetona asking to make the loans into irrevocable subsidy. Antanas Smetona did not analyse this issue in essentially he only signed the resolution. In the resolution he asked to direct this appeal to the Minister of Education. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education did not comply with this request. On 26 October, 1928 it reported to the President? s office informing that the Ministry would be able to provide the subsidy for the church of Ariogala only in 1929.

The subsidy for the church was a difficult burden for parishioners. The winter was extremely cold in 1928 and that made the situation even more difficult. A lot of cattle froze their legs or even froze to death as they were kept in temporal cattle-sheds (mostly barns). Most of the grain was spoilt and it meant the loss of seeds. Taking into consideration the exceedingly difficult situation of the parish the payment of the subsidy was postponed till 1934-1937.
However, the work did not stop. It was panned to roof the church till 1930. The priest A. Simanavičius wrote in the appeal of the 17th of May, 1930 that they needed 65000Lt for the roofing of the church. It was expected to collect 20000Lt from the parishioners but still there was a shortage of 45000Lt. According to the priest, the parishioners had already done a lot. They made the plan of the church, brought and squared the stones, brought enough rough sand, also bricks and lime were baked by their own expense. They fully prepared wood for the use. The priest asked for such a huge sum of money as they expected to pay it back after they finished building the church. It was planned to gain some profit from a small brick and lime factory they had purchased.

Kauno Metropolijos Kurija supported the appeal of the priest. The work did not stop though a loan was not granted. In summer of 1932 the priest wrote to the Minister of Education and Science that they had already spent 175000Lt for the construction and roofing the church. Now, they needed money for the equipment for the church. However, it was impossible to equip the church without a loan. That?? s why it was asked for help again. In 1932 it was expected to finish building and equipping the church with the help of the Government.
However, the support of the State was insufficient and they had to borrow money from elsewhere. In autumn of 1934 the priest wrote that there was already a debt of 48944Lt. He gave a detailed account of the situation:

1) the round for 2000Lt had to be paid to the exchequer on 2 December, 1934;
2) 2000Lt had to be paid to Lithuanian Bank, the Department of Kėdainiai on 8 December, 1934;
3) On 31 December, 1934 the debt of 20000Lt had to be paid back to the hotel "Roma" in Kaunas and on the same day 600Lt had to be paid for the provided wood to Kėdainiai forestry;

The priest kept on asking for the debt of the exchequer to turn into a subsidy of find another way to liquidate the huge debt of the church of Ariogala. The Cabinet Ministry having considered the fact that the church of Ariogala was destroyed during the war decided to cancel the debt of 1800Lt to the State ? s loss. Only on July, 1936 Cabinet Ministry decided to convert the loan of 15000Lt into a subsidy and not to exact it.

However, the debt did not decrease. According to the data of 1938 there were already debts of 66000Lt. On the other hand, the parish had more plans oh the construction. On 17 March, 1938 they asked for a loan to purchase 145 solid cubic metres of wood for building the building were church serving people and people in poverty lived and 185 solid cubic metres of wood for building the asylum of St Vincentas Paulietis. Unfortunately, the support was not granted this time and the building of the church was still unfinished.
In autumn of 1937 the newspaper "XX century" wrote that a huge and nice army festival was organized in Ariogala. The festival was started with the church service in a temporal church as the new one was still unfinished (there were no floor, doors and the altar).

Raseiniai Dominikonai supported the building of the church of Ariogala, too. There was a lottery organized for rebuilding the church in July 1937 in Raseiniai. According to the correspondent of "XX century" the lottery was successful. In two years there was a lottery organized in Ariogala, too. The profit of it was devoted to the church. There are no data found how parishioners agreed with the creditors. In 1939 the church service already took place in a new church.
Finally, from 1926 till 1939 a new brick church was built on the foundation of the old church. The help of the priest Antanas Simanavičius and the sacrifices of parishioners were of great importance for building the church. In 1939 the church was titled as St. Archangel Michael and consecrated by Juozas Skriveckas, the archbishop of Kaunas.

The church is historical. It is from a rectangle and it has features of eclectic style (neo-classicism, neo- baroque and basilica). It has two towers. There are three naves inside. The huge altar was moved from St Mikalojus church in Kaunas. The author of the project of the church is a Swiss architect E. Peyrri.

There is not much left of the old Ariogala except for the cemetery. There is a chapel built by Stasys Daugirdas in 1850.