Casimir, Saint

CASIMIRO, saint. — B. on 5 Oct. 1458; d. at Grodno on 4 March 1484. Son of Casimiro IV of Poland and Elisabetta d'Asburgo, and educated under the historian Giovanni Dlugosz, he was to inherit, together with the Hungarian throne, his maternal legacy. But when the expedition of 1471 against King Mattia Corvino failed, hope of the Hungarian throne vanished. For some time C. replaced his father in the government of Poland; he then went, as the king’s representative, to neighboring Lithuania. There, at Wilno, the holy city, exhausted by tuberculosis, he died after having lived, especially in his final years, an ascetic and contemplative life. In 1521 Leone X canonized him; in 1602 Clemente VIII granted Poland his Office and Mass, which Paolo V subsequently extended (1621) to the whole Church. Popular devotion made him the patron saint of Lithuania. Feast: 4 March.