CASIMIR, the second son of Casimir III., King of
Poland, was born A.D. 1458. From the custody of a most; virtuous mother,
Elizabeth of Austria, he passed to the guardianship of a devoted master, the
learned and pious John Dugloss. Thus animated from his earliest years by precept
and example, his innocence and piety soon ripened into the practice of heroic
virtue. At the age of twenty-five; sick of a lingering illness, he foretold the
hour of his death, and chose to die a virgin rather than take the life and
health which the doctors held out to him in the married state. In an atmosphere
of luxury and magnificence the young prince had fasted, worn a hair-shirt, slept
upon the bare earth, prayed by night, and watched for the opening of the church
doors at dawn. He had become so tenderly devoted to the Passion of Our Lord that
at Mass he seemed quite rapt out of himself, and his charity to the poor and
afflicted knew no bounds. His love for our Blessed Lady he expressed in a long
and beautiful hymn, familiar to us in our own tongue. The miracles wrought by
his body after death fill a volume. The blind saw, the lame walked, the sick
were healed, a dead girl was raised to life. And once the Saint in glory led his
countrymen to battle, and delivered them by a glorious victory from the
schismatic Russian hosts.
One hundred and twenty-two years after his death the Saint's tomb in the cathedral of Vienna was opened, that the holy body might be transferred to the rich marble chapel where it now lies. The place was damp, and the very vault crumbled away in the hands of the workmen; yet the Saint's body, wrapped in robes of silk, was found whole and incorrupt, and emitted a sweet fragrance, which filled the church and refreshed all who were present. Under his head was found his hymn to Our Lady, which he had had buried with him. The following night three young men saw a brilliant light issuing from the open tomb and streaming through the windows of the chapel.
Reflection.CLet the study of St. Casimir=s life make us increase in devotion to the most pure Mother of GodCa sure means of preserving holy purity.