St. Casimir of Poland

Casimir was the third of thirteen children born to King Casimir IV of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Elizabeth of Habsburg, an Austrian princess, daughter of Emperor Albert II.

Casimir and two of his brothers studied under the historian Jonh Dlugosz, a man of great knowledge and piety. Under the holy man, the young prince, already devout from infancy, embarked upon the pursuit of sanctity. Giving himself up to devotion and mortification, he often spent part of the night in intense prayer and meditation. Prince Casimir also had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At the death of Casimir’s uncle, King Ladislaus of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus a Hungarian nobleman was elected king. In 1471, at the instance of a group of Hungarian noblemen, Casimir IV decided to advance his fifteen-year-old son Casimir for the throne of Hungary. Both father and son participated in the endeavor. A Polish army of 12,000 advanced on Buda, but the campaign was unsuccessful.

Returning to Poland, Casimir resumed his studies. The prince was known for his intelligence, capacity, wisdom and charm. For four years, while his father was away in Lithuania, he administered Poland. Around this time his father tried to arrange a marriage for him to Kunegunde of Austria, daughter of Frederick II, but the prince refused, choosing to remain celibate.

Shortly after, the saintly prince succumbed to a severe attack of lung trouble. While on a journey to Lithuania he died at the court of Grodno on March 4, 1484 at the age of twenty-six.

A miracle attributed to Prince Casimir in 1518 caused his brother Sigismund I to advance his cause for canonization. During the Siege of Polotsk, Casimir appeared to the Lithuanian army and showed them where to cross the Daugava River and relieve the city besieged by the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Canonized in 1522 by Pope Adrian VI, St. Casimir is greatly revered in Poland.