St. Casimir, Prince and Patron of Poland and Lithuania (1458-1485)
St. Casimir Jagiellon was the son of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Queen Elizabeth Hapsburg of Hungary. He was the crown prince of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was their third child (of thirteen) and second boy and was born in modern day Krakow. When still just a boy, he was placed under the tutelage of the best masters and priests, who trained him in piety and learning. His most famed teacher was Fr. John Dulgosz, a very holy and strict priest known as a great historian, canon, and statesman, who even used corporal punishment to form Casimir and his brothers. He became a skilled orator and fluent in numerous languages. He brought his body into subjection by wearing a hair-shirt, and by frequent fasting. He could not endure the soft bed which is given to royalty, but lay on the hard floor, and during the night, he used to privately steal from his room and go to the church, where, prostrate before the door, he besought God to have mercy on him. The Passion of Christ was his favorite subject of meditation (quite appropriate for our season of Lent). When St. Casimir assisted at Holy Mass, his mind was so fixed upon God, that he seemed to be in one long ecstasy.
St. Casimir's natural destiny was slated to enlarge his father's kingdom and strengthen his families holdings. However, he realized from an early age that his life belonged to a much greater King than his father. Despite pressure, humiliation and rejection, he stood loyal to that firm conviction his whole life. Give our modern penchant for luxury, pleasure and riches, it is hard for us to imagine how these worldly values were seen a great temptation and scourge for Casimir. He refused to allow himself to succumb to these vanities knowing it was a test of his loyalty to God. For example, instead of wearing the fashionable clothes which all expected from him, he would wear the plainest of clothes.
So great was his zeal for the propagation of the Catholic faith, that he worked tirelessly for the suppression of the Russian schism. He persuaded his father (the king) to pass a law forbidding the schismatics to build new churches or to repair those which had fallen into ruin. Such was his charity for the poor and all sufferers, that he was given the nickname of "Father and Defender of the Poor." His contemporaries remarked that he impressed all with his commitment to justice and fariness.
When there was a rebellion of nobles in the Hungarian nobility, his father saw this as an opportunity to annex more land to his territories. He sent the 13 year old Casimir at the head of an army to take the throne. Casimir did so very unwillingly and only agreed out of obedience to his father and in the hopes that this would enable him to defend the Cross against invading Ottomans. The campaign failed miserably and Casimir had to return in disagrace. He was however comforted once he learned that Pope Sixtus IV had opposed this move. His father was terribly upset and disappointed but his rage grew exponentially once Casimir refused to support him in further aggrandizement for power. The king banished his son to a small castle. His father then left to Lithuania in order to strengthen his rule there and left Casimir as his regent in Poland. He ruled in an extremely wise and just manner, winning the praise of many, and increasing his families' prestige and popularity. The King, thinking Casimir would now work according to his plans, attempted to "reconcile" with his son by having him marry Kunigunde of Austria (daughter of Emperor Frederick III). Yet Casimir refused on account of having pledged himself completely to Christ.
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Casimir contracted a lung disease after a particularly hard fast, during which he was often found in the pre-dawn kneeling before the church gates in freezing cold, waiting for a priest to open the temple. During his final illness, he nobly evinced his love of purity, which virtue he had maintained unsullied during his whole life. He was suffering a cruel malady; but he courageously preferred to die, rather than suffer the loss of his chastity, whereby the royal physicians advised him to acquire a cure for his illness.
Being made perfect in a short space of time, and rich in virtue and merit, after having foretold the day of his death, he breathed forth his soul into the hands of God, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, surrounded by priests and religious. His body was taken to the Cathedral in Vilinus (Lithuanian capital), and God honored him by many miracles. A young girl was raised to life at his shrine; the blind recovered their sight, the lame the use of their limbs and the sick their health. He appeared to a small army of Lithuanians in 1518 (during the siege of Polotsk), who were unexpectedly attacked by a much larger force. He showed them were to safely cross the Daugava River, relieve the city and defeat the enemy army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This miracle prompted his brother, Sigismund the Old, to petition the pope to begin the process of canonizing Casimir. and gave them the victory over the enemy. Pope Leo X (1513-1521) was induced by all these miracles to enroll him among the beatified. A miraculous statue of St. Casimir is housed in the Vilinus Cathedral of St. Stanislaus. He is a patron saint of Lithuania and Poland. In 1602 he was canonized by Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605), and on June 11, 1948 he was declared the special patron of all youth by Pope Pius XII.
St. Casimir is usually depicted as young man in a long red robe lined with stoat fur. Sometimes he also wears the red cap of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, though the cap is more often simply placed near him to emphasize his devotion to the spiritual life. He usually holds a lily (symbol of virginity, purity and innocence). He often holds a cross, a rosary, and a book with the words Omni die dic Mariae (Daily, daily sing to Mary). This hymn is often attributed to him because he loved it greatly, but was actually authored by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.