AD 1484
Today we celebrate the feast day of St Casimir of Poland. This saint is significant as most Westerners are now learning the geography of Ukraine/Poland/Belarus and Russia. And so he is not just a saint who lived years ago and had a life full of mortifications. We can now see where he lived and why he might be more important than before the present invasion of Russia on Ukraine soil.
St Casimir was named "The Peace-Maker". Born in 1458, he was the third child of thirteen children of King Casimir IV, of Poland. Devout since his infancy, he gave himself up for devotion and penance. He slept on the ground, prayed all night. He meditated mostly on the Passion of our Lord. He, like most saints, wore a hair -shirt and promised a life of celibacy. Yet he maintained a jovial state, cheerful and pleasant to all.
St Casimir loved the poor and gave not only his inheritance to the poor but was able to convince his brother, the King Ladislaus, to donate some of his monies.
He was sent to Hungary to lead that country in a war. He refused to fight and therefore spent most of his life in confinement. He reigned briefly as King of Poland for a short while during his father's absence.
Because of his austerities, he had lung problems and died at the age of thirty-three in 1484.
He is buried in Vilna and his relics rest in the Church of St Stanislaus. Many miracles were attributed to him. He was canonized in 1521.
Source: Butler's Lives of the Saints, pp 66-67.
St Stanislaus Church in Krakow Poland
Map of Poland and surrounding Countries
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