Association Of Catholic Bloggers

St Casimir, Vilnius Cathedral, Lithuania  [ Wikipedia ] St Casimir  (3 October 1458 - 4 March 1484), whose feast day is today, 4 March, is patron saint of Poland, of Lithuania and of the young. He was noted for his great love for the poor and for his chastity. The biographical note in The CTS New Daily Missal  says:  His devotion to Our Lady was great; he was so fond of the twelfth-century hymn 'Daily, daily sing to Mary' that it is often attributed to him . The hymn - its Latin title is  Omni die, dic Mariae  - was written by St Bernard. You can find both the Latin and English lyrics on  CatholicCulture.org . A note there says  A  copy of this hymn by Bernard of Cluny was found beneath the right temple of St Casimir's incorrupt body when his grave was opened . The biographical note in the  CTS New Daily Missal  describes St Casimir as  A shining example of faith, piety, humility, and chastity . A priest I met in Scotland last year kindly gave me a copy of t

Reposted from Costing Not Less Than Everything Mary the Mother of Mercy, Chapel of the  Gates of Dawn  in Vilnius, Lithuania The  rizas  (robes), or revetments, of gilded silver, are in three separate pieces. The gown of Our Lady is embellished with flowers, in a reference to Our Lady as a ‘hortus conclusus’ or walled garden.  Many miracles have taken place after veneration of the painting – and about 8,000 votive offerings have been presented to the chapel, including the silver crescent moon at the base of the painting. The painting is believed to be of Polish origin and, unusually, represents Our Lady without the Infant Christ. The statues on either side of the painting are of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin. The chapel is an important place of pilgrimage in Lithuania and was visited by Blessed John Paul II in 1993. In the third week of November every year – in 2012, from 11th to 18th of November, the Indulgenced Feast of the Merciful Mo