From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   March 4th - St. Casimir the Pole   
      
   Casimir was the third of thirteen children born on October 5, 1458 at   
   Cracow, Poland. His father was King Casimir IV of Poland and his mother,   
   Elizabeth, was the daughter of Emperor Albert II of Austria. Casimir was the   
   third son, and a very holy man named Jan Dlugosz tutored him and his two   
   brothers, Ladislaus and John. It was Casimir who would gain great holiness   
   through his teachings.   
      
   Even as a young boy Casimir would practice fasting and austerity. He seemed   
   to have a horror of anything which he considered self-indulgent or soft. He   
   would spend many hours of the night in prayer and gave all he possessed to   
   relieve the needs of the poor. He had great love for Mary, the mother of   
   Jesus and often sang hymns to her.   
      
   In 1471 the nobility of Hungary, in opposition to their king, tried to   
   persuade Casimir to take the throne. He was only fifteen at the time, but he   
   accepted his father's wishes and took an army to the frontier of Hungary.   
   Fortunately his own soldiers began deserting and his opponent was assembling   
   a large army to fight him. Casimir decided to return home. When he learned   
   that the pope had sent an emissary to his father to deter such an assault,   
   he became surer of himself and refused ever after to take up arms.   
      
   Casimir returned to his studies and to prayer. His father tried to urge him   
   to marry one of the daughters of Emperor Frederick III of Germany. Casimir   
   refused on the grounds that he had taken a vow of celibacy and dedicated his   
   life to the service of God. Casimir governed Poland from 1481 to 1483,   
   during his father's absence. He gained a reputation for fairness, prudence   
   and deep love and concern for the needs of his people.   
      
   Casimir suffered from lung disease most of his life and his austere   
   practices most likely shortened his life. He died at the age of 25 on March   
   4, 1484, while on a trip to Lithuania, where he was the Grand Duke. Soon   
   after his death, many miracles were attributed to his intercession. He was   
   canonized in 1521.   
      
   Reflection. May the meditation of Saint Casimir's life make us increase in   
   devotion to the most pure Mother of God - a sure means of preserving holy   
   purity in our own soul.   
      
      
   More on St. Casimir   
      
   St. Casimir, prince of Poland, was born in the royal palace at Krakow on   
   October 3, 1458.   
      
   When the King went to Lithuania to arrange affairs there, Casimir was placed   
   in charge of Poland and from 1481 to 1483 administered the State with great   
   prudence and justice. About this time his father tried to arrange a marriage   
   for him with the daughter of Frederick III, but Casimir preferred to remain   
   single. Shortly afterward he fell sick, and died at the court of Grodno on   
   March 3, 1484. He is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   I would like to emphasize that St. Casimir lived in the royal court of his   
   parents, Casimir IV the Great and Queen Elizabeth of Habsburg, to point out   
   that he lived his life at court and became a saint there.   
      
   Sometimes, because of a certain erroneous vision of sanctity, one is led to   
   think that only persons in the religious life - priests, monks and nuns -   
   can become saints. According to this mentality, it is so rare for a   
   layperson to become a saint that one who does so should be considered an   
   exception to the rule, a kind of miracle. However a lay saint is not an   
   exception to the rule; it is the normal accomplishment of the plan of Divine   
   Providence for lay persons.   
      
   The fact that St. Casimir became a saint living in a royal court shows that   
   the court was a place where one can live and be a saint. In this sense, it   
   constitutes a kind of eulogy to the ambience in which he lived. This fact   
   refutes the revolutionary propaganda that says that the courts were   
   necessarily corrupt. Frequently, as we can verify on our calendar, there   
   were saints who were kings and queens, saints who were princes and   
   princesses, and saints who were nobles. Very often sanctity perfumed the   
   courts. Therefore, those courts, instead of being seats of moral corruption   
   and perdition, were often places where sanctity throve, flourished, and   
   exerted a considerable influence.   
      
   In this sense, the ambience of court in many ways realized the ideal of   
   Christian Civilization. What should an ideal court be in a Christian   
   Civilization? The king is an earthly image of God, and his court should be   
   an image of the heavenly court. In an ideal Catholic court, the saintly king   
   would be surrounded by courtesans who should be images of the angels and   
   saints before God thrice holy. Now, the fact that this ideal has been   
   partially realized at certain times in History is something that should fill   
   us with joy. These examples show that the Catholic courts were good, and   
   they also demonstrate how the revolutionary propaganda lies when it talks   
   about the courts.   
      
   Someone could object and say that in one thousand years of History, anyone   
   can find anything to prove a thesis. Therefore, just because many saints can   
   be found in the courts, this does not prove what I said   
      
   I can answer this objection. First, the argument is not true. If it were   
   true, we should have a proportional number of saints in the governments and   
   representative houses of the liberal republican system. This system has been   
   established almost everywhere since the American and French Revolutions -   
   for more than 200 years. We do not find saints, however, flourishing in   
   these political ambiences, but quite the opposite.   
      
   Second, according to the laws of History, normally great virtue or great   
   vice does not appear isolated. It appears, to use a metaphor, like a   
   mountain peak on a whole chain of mountains. That means that if you have a   
   saint in one place, surrounding him you normally have a number of people who   
   are very good Catholics even though they are not saints, a greater number of   
   upright people, and a multitude of just decent people. Sanctity is the   
   greatest fruit of a whole social group that aspires to follow Our Lord Jesus   
   Christ. Therefore, by showing that many saints existed in the Catholic   
   courts of times past, we demonstrate that those ambiences were compatible   
   with sanctity and good on many levels. So, the saints who lived in those   
   courts were not just exceptional cases, but reflections of the whole.   
      
   I think that St. Casimir is pleased that we are remembering these points   
   about him. I hope and pray that from his heavenly throne he will protect us   
   in our counter-revolutionary fight.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "We the Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are   
   carved out of His heart as from a rock."   
      
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