Feast day: March 4

St. Casimir

Prince · 1458–1484

Patron of Poland, Lithuania

A prince of Poland who refused to lead an unjust war, declined a crown offered by rebels, and lived a life of prayer, charity, and purity before dying of illness at twenty-five.

Casimir was born in 1458 in the royal castle of Cracow, second son of King Casimir IV of Poland and grandson of the king who had brought Christianity to Lithuania. He was raised, with his brothers, under a strict and learned tutor, and from boyhood was marked by an unusual seriousness and piety.

At thirteen he was thrust into politics: a faction of Hungarian nobles offered him their crown, and his father sent him at the head of an army to claim it. The expedition failed, and Casimir, who had doubted the justice of the war, returned home and afterward refused to take up arms in such a cause again.

He gave himself instead to prayer, study, and the care of the poor, keeping vigil at church doors and giving away his wealth. Though pressed to marry for reasons of state, he held to a vow of chastity. For two years, while his father was in Lithuania, he governed Poland with notable justice and prudence.

He died of tuberculosis in 1484, only twenty-five, and was buried at Vilnius, where miracles were soon reported. Canonized in the following century, St. Casimir is honoured as the patron of Poland and of Lithuania.

Offered the throne of Hungary by rebellious nobles, he turned it down as unjust — and is honored today as the patron of Poland and Lithuania.

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/03402a.htm