Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/456

 CASIMIR

402

CASOT

Limerick, Ross, Waterford and Kilfenora. The Bishop of Gahvay is Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora. Statistics for 1908. — Archdiocese of Cashel and Diocese of Emly: archbishop, 1, parishes, 46, par- ish priests, 44, administrators, 2, curates, 67, secular clergy, 103, regular clergy, 3, parochial and district churches, 84, houses of regular clergy (Augustinians), 1, theological seminary (at Thurles), 1, college (at Rockwell, Cashel), 1, convents of nuns, 15, with 322 members, monasteries of brothers, 4, with 24 mem- bers. Catholic population (1901) 111,185, non- Catholic population (1901) 4659, total 115,844.

Colgan, Ada Sanctorum (Louvain, 1645); Lanigan. Eccle- siastical II ixtnru of Ireland (Dublin. 1905); Wahe-Hakkis. Works on /reload (Dublin. 1764); Petrie. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (Dublin, 1845); Book of Rights, ed. O'Donovan (Dublin, 1847); Renehan, Collections of Irish Church History (Dublin. 1S61). I; Spicilegnim Ossonense ed. Moran (Dublin, 1863); Healv, Life and Writings of St. Patrick (Dublin, 1905). J. J. Ryan.

Casimir, Saint, Prince of Poland, b. in the royal palace at Cracow, 3 October, 1458; d. at the court of Grodno, 4 March, 1484. He was the grandson of Wladislaus II Jagiello, King of Poland, who intro- duced Christianity into Lithuania, and the second son of King Casimir IV and Queen Elizabeth, an Aus- trian princess, the daughter of Albert II, Emperor of Germany and King of Bohemia and Hungary. Casimir's uncle, Wladislaus III, King of Poland and Hungary, perished at Varna in 1444, defending Chris- tianity against the Turks. Casimir's elder brother, Wladislaus, became King of Bohemia in 1471, and King of Hungary in 1490. Of his four younger brothers, John I, Albert, Alexander, and Sigismund in turn occupied the Polish throne, while Frederick, the youngest, became Archbishop of Gnesen, Bishop of Cracow, and finally cardinal, in 1493. The early training of the young princes was entrusted to Father Dlugosz, the Polish historian, a canon at Cracow, and later Archbishop of Lwow (Lemberg), and to Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Calhmachus. Father Dlugosz was a deeply religious man, a loyal patriot, and like Callimachus, well versed in statecraft. Casimir was placed in the care of this scholar at the age of nine, and even then he was remarkable for his ardent piety. When Casimir was thirteen he was offered the throne of Hungary by a Hungarian faction who were discontented under King Matthias Corvinus. Eager to defend the Cross against the Turks, he accepted the call and went to Hungary to receive the crown. He was unsuccessful, however, and returned a fugi- tive to Poland. The young prince again became a pupil of Father Dlugosz, under whom he remained until 1475. He was later associated with his father who initiated him so well into public affairs that after his elder brother, Wladislaus, ascended the Bohemian throne, Casimir became heir-apparent to the throne of Poland. When in 1479 the king went to Lithuania to spend five years arranging affairs there, Casimir was placed in charge of Poland, and from 1481 to 1483 administered the State with great prudence and jus- tice. About this time his father tried to arrange for him a marriage with the daughter of Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, but Casimir preferred to re- main single. Shortly afterwards he fell victim to a severe attack of lung trouble, which, weak as he was from fastings and mortifications, he could not with- stand. While on a journey to Lithuania, he died at the court ot Grodno, 4 March, 1484. His remains were interred in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin in the cathedral of Vilna.

St. Casimir was possessed of great charms of person and character, and was noted particularly for his jus- tice and chastity. Often at night lie would kneel for hours before the locked doors of churches, regardless of the hour or the inclemency "I the weather. He had :. special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and the hymn of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "Omni die die

Marise mea laudes anima", was long attributed to him. After his death he was venerated as a saint, because of the miracles wrought by him. Sigismund I, King of Poland, petitioned the pope for Casimir's canonization, and Pope Leo X appointed the papal legate Zaccaria Ferreri, Bishop of Guardalfiera, the Archbishop of Gnesen, and the Bishop of Przemysl to investigate the life and miracles of Casimir. This inquiry was completed at Thurn in 1520, and in 1522 Casimir was canonized by Adrian VI. Pope Clement VIII named 4 March as his feast. St. Casi- mir is the patron of Poland and Lithuania, though he is honoured as far as Belgium and Naples. In Poland and Lithuania churches and chapels are dedicated to him, as at Rozana and on the River Dzwina near Potocka, where he is said to have contributed miracu- lously to a victory of the Polish army over the Rus- sians. In the beginning of the seventeenth century King Sigismund III began at Vilna the erection of a chapel in honour of St. Casimir, which was finished under King Wladislaus IV. The building was de- signed by Peter Danckerts, of the Netherlands, who also adorned the walls with paintings illustrating the life of the saint. In this chapel is found an old paint- ing renovated in 1594, representing the saint with a lily in his hand. Two other pictures of the saint are preserved, one in his life by Ferreri, and the other in the church at Krosno in Galicia.

Potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii a?vi, Wegwciser (2nd ed.), 1236; Chevalier, Bio-bibl., s. v.; Estreicher. Biiblio- grafia poloka (Cracow. 1903), XIX. 210-12; Prileszky, Acta sanctorum Hungarian (Tymau, 1743), I, 121-32; Ferreri, Vita beati Casimiri confessoris er serenissimis Polonia- regibus (Cra- cow, 1521) in Acta SS., March. I. 347-51; St. Gregory, Miracula S. Casimiri in Acta SS.. March, I, 351-57; Ioem, 5. Casimiri theatrum set/ ipsius prosapia, vita, miracula (Vilna, 1604); ClATI, La santita prodigiosa di S. Casimiro (Luccoa, 16. .); Otficium S. Casimiri confessoris M. D. Lithuania' patrini (Vilna, 1638); Colle, Compendia delta vita di S. Casimiro (Palermo, 1650); Tyszkiewicz, Krnlcwska droga do nisba albo zycie sw. Kazimierza (Warsaw. 1752); Sw. Kazimier, in Przyjaeiel ludu (Lissa, 1846), XIII; Pekalski, Zywoty sw. Patronihv polskich (Cracow, 1866); Przezdziecki Oraison de saint Casimir a la tres sainte Vierge (Cracow, 1S66); I.ESZEK, Zywot sw. Kazimierza Jagiellonczi/ka (Cracow. 1S18); Pallan, Sw. Kazimierz (Tarnow, 1S93); Papee, Swiety Kazimierz krdleuicz polski (Lemberg., 1902); Papee, Studya i szkice z czasow Kazimierza Jagieilonczyka (Warsaw, 1907), 141-54.

L. Abraham.

Casium, a titular see of Lower Egypt (Ptolemy, IV, v, 12), not far from Pelusium, and near the sandhills known by Greek geographers as Kasion Oros, to-day El-Katieh, or El-Kas. There was at Casium a tem- ple of Zeus Kasios, the Aramean god Qasiou, and Pompey, who had been murdered near the place, was buried there. The town is mentioned in Georgius Cyprius (ed. Gelzer, 694), Hierocles' "Synecdemos" (727, 2), and Parthey's "Notitia Prima", about 840, as a bishopric depending on Pelusium in Augustam- nica Prima. Only one bishop is known, Lampetius, present at Ephesus in 431. He was sent by St. Cyril, with Hermogenes, Bishop of Rhinocorua, to Rome, where both were present at the consecration of Pope Sixtus III. Many letters of St. Isidore of Pelusium are addressed to him (Lequien, II, 54.5).

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geogr. (London, 1878), I, 558.

S. Petrides.

Casot, Jean- Jacques, the last surviving Jesuit of the old Canada mission, b. in Liege, Belgium, 4 Oct., 1728; d. at Quebec, 16 March, 1S00. With him ended the long line of the sons of St. Ignatius who laboured in Canada during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At his death the Society of Jesus became extinct in New France. He first joined the Society as a lay brother at the novitiate in Paris, 16 Dec, 1753, and left for Canada towards the close of 17.">li. where In' was employed as cook at the college of Quebec. Ho was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Briand, of Quebec, in order to preserve from extinction as long as possible the So-