Today March 4

Today is the feast of another Pole, St. Casimir (1461 - 1484), called "the Peace Maker," although he never really did MAKE peace, he just refused to participate in war. Perhaps he would be better called "the Pacifist." He also is sometimes referred to as the "king of Poland" or the "king of Hungary," but he never wore the crown of either country.

King Casimir IV had 13 children and Casimir was the second son -- the "spare heir" as they say -- and his older brother Ladislaus did, in fact, become king of Bohemia. But Casimir remained just a prince. And he was that rarest of saints: the unmarried layman. Few there are of saints who are not in the religious life, and fewer still who are not married. But Casimir took the "third way" of the single life,
also a vocation. He was pressured to marry, sure, but he was strong in his will to celibacy, which is, after all, the requirement for all the unmarried. And he had help to maintain that state: a profound sense of penance and self-denial (surely not easy in the lush palaces of the Polish kings). But he did it healthily and always with a smile: and no self-flagellation for him. . . . Simple meals, a hard bed, a hair shirt, but a smile for everyone.

But this unruffled state was not to last. At the request of the Hungarian aristocracy, Casimir Senior sent his son to Hungary to be their king. Casimir Junior hated to go but being obedient, he went. But when he reached the border, he was confronted in battle by the rightful king, Matthias Corvinus. And he had to make a choice: go on and fight or retreat. He was compelled by his father but he felt the cause was not sufficiently just and he gambled that the Pope himself would agree (he did). So he retreated, knowing what it would cost him in the eyes of his father. Indeed, he was exiled -- nearly disowned -- and spent the remainder of his life in the castle of Dobzki. He never again would take up arms . . . for any reason.

He died of lung trouble on this day in 1484 and is buried in Vilna, where his relics still rest in the church of st. Stanislaus. St. Casimir, pray for us.