SAINT CASIMIR’S STORK

ŠVENTO KAZIMIERO GANDRAS

Tūkstantis šeši šimtai ketvirtaisiais metais, popiežius

Klemensas VIII įrašė karalaitį Kazimierą į šventųjų skaičių .......

Translated from Lithuanian by Gloria o’Brien

In the year 1604, Pope Clement VIII entered Casimir, prince of Poland and Lithuania, into the ranks of acknowledged saints, sending a Papal bull and a silk banner blessed in honor of the new saint. The canonization celebration took place in Vilnius, on May 10, 1604. Both bull and banner were delivered to St. Stephen’s Church, and then brought to the cathedral in a solemn procession.

The city was decorated for the celebratory holiday. Houses on the main streets were adorned with flowers and greenery, and windows and balconies were hung with Persian or Turkish tapestries. Four ceremonial arches, decorated with coats of arms and religious or allegorical pictures or inscriptions, stood at points along the procession’s route. The procession began with cannon fire, and included soldiers, members of philanthropic brotherhoods, public societies, the city’s government, magistrates, craftsmen’s guilds, monks and nuns, priests from around the world, and innumerable crowds of ordinary citizens. All along the route, music played, cannon roared, and guns crackled. Every bell in the bell-towers of every church sounded unceasingly.

The procession went on for eight hours, and during all that time, the grand Lithuanian Chancellor, Leonas Sapiega, assisted by two deacons, carried the large, heavy banner, blessed in honor of the saint. As the procession left St. Stephen’s Church and moved along Rūdninkų street, all eyes were drawn to a barely perceptible spot that had appeared in the clear blue sky. The spot came closer and closer, and became bigger and bigger, until everyone saw that it was a stork flying towards them. Soon he was flying low over their heads. Ignoring the rumbling cannon and crackling gunfire, as well as the great crowd of humanity, he flew straight to the banner and settled on its cross-staff, where he remained for about an hour. Eventually, he rose from the banner, and just clearing the rooftops, the stork flew in front of the procession, as though showing the way.

This odd event was explained in this way: In those days, various seperatist sects, such as Calvinism, had gained strength in Vilnius. Since the stork destroys snakes and other vermin, his appearance at this solemn hour signified that all heretics and the fallen-away would return to the true faith.

Source:

“Vilniaus Legendos”, compiled by Stasys Lipskis,

published by “Žuvėdra” - Vilnius 1998

This article was published in Lithuanian Heritage Feb/Mar 2006

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