CASIMIRIO, SANTO

CASIMIR, St. — Born on 5 Oct. 1458, died at Grodno on 4 March 1484. Son of Casimir IV of Poland and Elizabeth of Habsburg, he was educated under the historian Giovanni Dlugosz and was destined, together with the Hungarian throne, to inherit his mother’s patrimony. But the expedition of 1471 against King Matthias Corvinus failed, and the hope of the Hungarian throne vanished. For a time Casimir stood in for his father in the government of Poland; then, as the king’s representative, he went to nearby Lithuania. There, in Wilno, the holy city, he died of tuberculosis after having lived, especially in his last years, an ascetic and contemplative life. In 1521 Leo X canonized him; Clement VIII, in 1602, granted Poland the Office and Mass in his honour, which Paul V then extended (1621) to the whole Church. Popular devotion made him the patron saint of Lithuania. Feast, 4 March.