Saint Casimir

Casimir was born on October 3, 1458, at Wawel, the royal palace of Kraków. He was the third child of Casimir IV, king of Poland, and Queen Elizabeth of Austria: a boy born in the midst of Europe’s crowns, with a maternal grandfather who had been king of Bohemia, king of Hungary and King of the Romans. From the age of nine he was educated by Jan Długosz, historian and canon of Kraków, and by the humanist Filippo Buonaccorsi. At thirteen the factions opposed to Matthias Corvinus offered him the throne of Hungary, and the offer had a certain legitimacy: his uncle Władysław III, king of Poland and Hungary, had fallen at the battle of Varna in 1444. At first Casimir accepted enthusiastically — the idea of defending Christian lands from the Turks had won him over — and set out to be crowned. Then he learned that Pope Sixtus IV was against it, so as not to raise tensions with the Ottoman Empire any further, and he turned back to Poland. His father then tried to steer him toward politics and dynastic marriages. Casimir went another way: prayer, study, a strict personal life and a reputation for generosity toward the poor that has lasted longer than any treaty signed in those years. He died in Hrodna on March 4, 1484, at twenty-five. He is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania. If your name is Casimir, today is your name day.