There's a... well, a building, next town over from our place, of superficially indeterminate function, with a sign hanging outside calling it "St. Kazimiers." This is not a saint of which I am familiar (to be frank, there are a great many saints of which I am not familiar, so this is no great surprise), but eventually I became curious enough to do a little research.Kazimier is the Polish spelling of Saint Casimir, originally Casimir Jagiellon, prince of the Kingdom of Poland in the late 15th century. He died a few years before Columbus sailed, if that gives you a better reference point. I know it does for me-- I always have trouble keeping historical dates distinct unless I can cross-link them to something else I'm vaguely familiar with ("ok, when popcorn was introduced to the American settlers, it was before J. S. Bach, but after Shakespeare...). Anyway.
Caz (may I call you Caz? Thank you.) was an ardent Catholic, supporting Christian Poland against the Turkish encroachment. He was offered the Hungarian crown as well as the Polish one, but was rebuffed in his attempts to travel to Hungary to accept, and had to retreat a fugitive. He was extremely devout, a fact that unfortunately led more or less directly to his death-- his excessive devotions (fasting, mortification) left him weak, and he apparently contracted lung disease, maybe TB, and expired.
Several online articles about him mention "various miracles" but do not specify, so I have no idea what he is supposed to have done to qualify him for canonization, except possibly to be both royal and devout, which may have been enough if you're cynical like me. He is now considered to be a patron saint of Poland, Lithuania, and the young.
Oh, and so the building is the St. Kazimierz Society, I guess somewhere between a church and a fraternal lodge.
