Saint of the Day: St. Casimir

Prince (1458-1484)

His life

+ Casimir was born in Krakow, Poland. The third child of Casimir IV, the king of Poland and Lithuania, he was educated at court but secretly fostered habits of penance and devotion.

+ Casimir was especially devoted to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin, in whose honor he is said to have composed the hymn Omne die dic Mariae (“Daily, daily sing to Mary”).

+ Casimir is especially remembered for his purity and single-minded devotion to the poor. He is also honored as an advocate for peace for his refusal to take part in the politics and power-plays of his father who urged Casimir to seize the throne of Hungary and Bohemia.

+ Saint Casimir died of tuberculosis in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1484, at the age of twenty-five. He was canonized in 1602 and is honored as a patron saint of Poland and Lithuania.

+ In 1907, Venerable Maria Kaupas, a Lithuanian immigrant, founded a new community of religious sisters dedicated to this saint: the Sisters of St. Casimir. Today, the members of this community serve in various parts of the United States, Lithuania, and Argentina.

For prayer and reflection

“As a result nothing was more pleasant, nothing more desirable for him, than to share his belongings, and even to dedicate and give his entire self to Christ’s poor, to strangers, to the sick, to those in captivity and all who suffer.”—from an early life of Saint Casimir

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also remember Saint Giovanni Antonio Farina. A priest in Vicenza, Italy, founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of St. Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Heart to serve the poor. Consecrated bishop of Treviso in 1850, he ordained the future Pope Saint Pius X to the priesthood in 1858. Named bishop of Vicenza in 1860, Saint Giovanni died on March 4, 1888, and was canonized in 2014.

Prayer

Almighty God, to serve you is to reign;
grant that, with the help of Saint Casimir's intercession,
we may constantly serve you in holiness and justice.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.