Saint Casimir - Cult

Cult

Surviving contemporary accounts described Prince Casimir as a young man of exceptional intellect and education, humility and politeness, striving for justice and fairness. Early sources do not attest to his piousness or devotion to god, but his inclination to religious life increased towards the end of his life. Later sources provide some stories of Casimir's religious life. Marcin Kromer (1512–1589) claimed that Casimir refused physician advise to have sexual relations with women in hopes to cure his illness. Other accounts claimed that Casimir contracted his lung disease after a particularly hard fast or that he could be found pre-dawn kneeling by church gates waiting for a priest to open them. The first miracle attributed to Casimir was his appearance before the Lithuanian army during the Siege of Polotsk in 1518. Casimir showed where Lithuanian troops could safely cross the Daugava River and relieve the city, besieged by the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. After hearing about this miracle, Casimir's brother Sigismund I the Old petitioned the pope to canonize Casimir.

Saint Casimir's painting in Vilnius Cathedral is considered to be miraculous. The painting, completed probably around 1520, depicts the saint with two right hands. According to a legend, the painter attempted to redraw the hand in a different place and paint over the old hand, but the old hand miraculously reappeared. More conventional explanations claim that three-handed Casimir was the original intent of the painter to emphasize exceptional generosity of Casimir (But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3) or that the old hand bled through a coat of new paint (similar to a palimpsest). Around 1636 the painting was covered in gilded silver clothing (riza).

Casimir's iconography usually follows the three-handed painting. He is usually depicted as a young man in long red robe lined with sloat fur. Sometimes he wears a red cap of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but other times, to emphasize his devotion to spiritual life, the cap is placed near Casimir. Usually he holds a lily, a symbol of virginity, innocence, and purity. He might also hold a cross, a rosary, or a book with words from Omni die dic Mariae (Daily, Daily Sing to Mary). The towns of Kvėdarna and Nemunaitis in Lithuania have Saint Casimir depicted on their coat of arms.

He was canonized by Pope Adrian VI in 1522 and is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania. On June 11, 1948, Pope Pius XII named Saint Casimir the special patron of all youth.