The text mentions the tomb monument of King John II Casimir Vasa located in the church of Saint-Germain des Pres. The history of the reign of this monarch is recalled, and a description of the tomb, its inscriptions and issues relating to its relocation during the French Revolution are presented (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1900, Półrocze I, pp. 145-148, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Description of Polish souvenirs in Paris.

The epoch of Valois left yet another memento of the presence in Paris of Polish deputies. It is well known that our deputies had a better command of Latin than Charles IX's courtiers, who were therefore in considerable trouble. When the Polish deputies spoke to Charles IX's mother, Catherine de Medici, one lady answered them in Latin:

"The Duchess de Retz," writes Alexander Lenoir, "had only one day to prepare. Everyone acknowledged that she spoke more beautifully than the Chancellor Birague and the Count de Cheverny, who also spoke in this circumstance, the former on behalf of King Charles IX and the latter on behalf of the Duc d'Anjou."

Arcinius Crucimanius, publisher of biographies of illustrious people, says that the Archbishop of Gniezno declared that it was worth travelling all over Europe to hear a similar pronouncement. He adds that the Duchess de Retz was no less distinguished in the sciences and philosophy. She also showed the greatest prowess among the religious wars. On learning that an enemy detachment was approaching the castle in her husband's absence, she summoned her subjects, jumped on her horse and, lance in hand, set off to attack the attackers. Many of them fell dead, the rest escaped. Anna de Clermont-Tonnerre, born in 1543, primo voto Retz, remarried to Albrecht de Gouda and died. The great sculptor Bartholomew Prieur made her statue, which is in the Hall of Modern Sculpture in the Louvre Museum.

The tombstone mentions a Latin speech, delivered in response to the Polish deputies. Both the Latin speech and the tomb inscription would not have been enough to preserve the original memory of this figure, had she not been revived in a biography and in white marble that makes the viewer curious and inclined to look back to her biography. But the magnificent monument to King John Casimir in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church takes us even more vividly into the strange vicissitudes of the life of this monarch, who spent so many years in France and met her in very sad circumstances for him.

John Casimir fought in the army of Emperor Ferdinand III, his uncle, against the French; having abandoned the Austrian ranks, he was captured when, sailing from Italy to Barcelona, he landed at la Tour de Bouc. Cardinal Richelieu imprisoned him for several years, first at Sisteron, then at Vincennes. These adventures contributed to his entry into the clerical state. Inocent X appointed him a cardinal, but the vocation was probably not his, and from the letter, which we quote from the autograph, respecting the spelling of the original, it is clear that what he was most concerned about was retaining the title of "Prince Majority".

"To the Priest de Saint-Nicolas in Rome. Monsieur, I cannot write to you without contributing to your annoyance; I think that all my letters give you trouble, and yet I do not hesitate to contribute new concerns with this letter; since my affairs are to some extent common to those of the King, I think you will be kind enough to give me some of the time you devote to the affairs of France. Monsieur l'abbé, Je ne pourois vous escrire sans vous donner de la peyne et je croy bien que toutes mes lettres vous sont des sujets de nouveaux soings, pour tout cela pourtant je ne laisse pas de vous en donner encore par celle-ci, parce que mes interests estant en quelque façon communs avec ceux du Roy, je croy que vous estes bien aise de partager pour moy vos occupations, et de donner à mes affaires une partie du temps que vous donnez à celles de France. Celle que j'ay de la plus haute importance à present à la cour de Rome (où je m'immagine que vous estes de retour), est la poursuite du titre d'Altesse que le pape ne veut pas me laisser avec le chapeau, comme si la grace qu'il m'a faicte à demy et le droit avec lequel je suis nay, estoient des choses si contraires qu'elles ne peussent pas estre toutes deux en une mesme personne. Vous l'armée française a prise de Piombin et fait deja voir le progrès qu'on en peut attendre. C'est là un premier succès duquel je me réjois de tout mon coeur et je l'ayme si fort que je souhaitterais avec passion de me le rendre utile. Ma pensée serait donc, Monsieur, que Monsieur le Cardinal Grimaldi et vous prinsses la peyne de parler de nouveau au Pape, vos adresses ordinaires et suivant ce qu'on resoudra de cette place pour les interests du prince auquel."

A matter of great importance which I must now advocate with the curia in Rome (where, I presume, you have already returned) is the question of the title of princely highness, which the Pope does not wish to leave me together with the (cardinal's) hat, as if the favour which he is half doing me and the rights of my birth were in such contradiction with each other that they cannot fall to one and the same person. Since our last conversation, the French troops have begun their victorious march towards the borders of Italy by taking Piombin and have made the progress that should have been expected. This is the beginning of a success which I rejoice in with all my heart and which I would like to use fervently for my purposes.

It has therefore occurred to me that Cardinal Grimaldi and you, with your usual dexterity, should speak again with the Pope to King John Casimir and, relative to what is decided about this city, in the interests of the prince to whom it belongs, try to convince the Pope that granting me the title due to me will give pleasure to the King, your sovereign, because this will allow me to be useful to him in the bosom of the sacred College, and the settlement of the complications in which the Pope's son-in-law has become entangled through the taking of the said city will go more smoothly, once the King learns that His Holiness bestows his favour on a prince recognised as a Frenchman, and bestows on him at such a moment what he has hitherto denied him: The whole point, then, is to combine deftly my affairs with those of the King, and to make the title of His Majesty a necessary condition for the settlement of questions which have already arisen and may yet arise in that country; to let the obstinate Holy Father know that the favour I demand is the best means of saving the rights of his son-in-law (which I believe can be saved). In doing so, I would like to suggest to the Pope, by means of a suitable forté, the idea that the French army can change the state of affairs and that this very thing, which today is a kind of grace, can become a necessity. All these are things that can be said in an audience in a softened form in which they cannot be written. I am counting a great deal on Cardinal Grimaldi's wisdom and on your abilities, and I expect that these efforts will be crowned with success. This is all the trouble you will have because of me. I wish that the hardships you will incur for me will lead to a happy result, and that I may one day benefit from the classes I have been imposing on your reason for the last five or six months.

I remain a very good friend of yours John Casimir Cardinal of Venice, 23 October, r. 1640. Many years later, after renouncing the Polish throne, John Casimir went to France, Louis XIV offering him several abbeys, including the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés in Paris. Fr Jacques Boullart, in his history of the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés, published in 1724, describes this fact as follows: "On the twelfth of October 1669, Henry de Bourbon, Abbot of Saint-German, having decided to marry the Duchess of Sully, renounced his abbey in favour of John Casimir, King of Poland and Sweden, who had taken refuge in France, having voluntarily resigned his throne in the twentieth year of his reign, received a bull from Rome on the 8th of March, and took possession of the Abbey of Saint-German on the 23rd of May, through the intermediary of the Abbot of Chaise-Dieu, Daniel de Saint-Martin, bearing his mandate. The Polish king made his first appearance in the Abbey church on 24 November. The church was decorated with the most beautiful carpets, the abbot's chair was also sumptuously decorated, as was the great altar, before which a kneeler was placed, covered with a rich carpet of velvet, interspersed with gold and silver. The Polish king arrived at 10 o'clock in the morning in his usual attire with the chain of the Golden Fleece, in a procession of numerous Polish noblemen and all his court. All the monks in slippers welcomed him at the church gate to the ringing of all the bells.

Grand Prior vous lui pourricz adoucir en une audiance d'une fa quelle on ne peut pas les escrire et je me proinct- de i;l prudence de Monsieur le cardinal Grimaldi et de vostre capacite le succes que peut causer cette conjoncture via toute la peyne que je vous donna. Je souhaite edlo suit, heureuse, que les soings que vous prunes de mes "res me reusisse et que je puisse profiter un jour de D < :! pa- tion que je donne depuis cinq on six mois a vostre prudence. Je suis Monsieur, vostre bien bon ami Jean Casimire Card. De Venise le 23 d'Octobre 1640. "He had a speech to him, the Te Deum was sung. Later the king was led into the temple, where he listened to a sung mass. After the mass he was escorted through the door closest to the abbey palace.

This abbey occupied a very large space on the left side of the Seine. You can see from the contemporary engraving that a lovely monastery and magnificent buildings surrounded the church. The French Revolution abolished the monastery, parcelled out the buildings and put them up for sale. I do not know to what extent the tradition that John Casimir lived in the house bearing the number eleven on Jacob Street today is reliable. The owner of this house claims that the spacious living room on the first floor was the king's living room and that an underground passage connected this building with the church. This is not the place to write about John Casimir's lifestyle and his alleged marriage to Françoise Mignot. We will only mention that he took an active interest in public affairs and that the news of the capture of Kamieniec by the Turks hastened his death.

"At the beginning of November 1672," writes Fr Boullart, "John Casimir, King of Poland and Abbot of Saint-German, returning from the waters of the Bourbon, fell ill at Nevers and died on the 16th of the same month in the Priory of the Canons Regular of that city. His body was deposited in the house of the Jesuits, where it remained until the month of May 1675, when it was taken to Poland and laid to rest in Cracow, in a tomb prepared in the Jesuit church by the king for himself and his family. The heart was deposited in the abbey of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés, in the chapel of Saint Placid, now Saint Casimir."

A monument was later erected, which still exists today, on which John Casimir is pictured kneeling, in white marble, in royal attire, offering his crown and his sceptre to God, on a tomb of black marble, with a beautiful bronze bas-relief, executed by Brother Jean Thibaut, a converse monk of the congregation of Saint-Maur, very expert in this art. The captives, chained to the trophies, recall the victories of this prince over the Turks, Tartars and so on. This group is the work of Mr de Marci, sculptor to the French king. The heart is enclosed in this tomb, on which is engraved an inscription, composed by François Delfan, a monk of the abbey:

"AETERNAE MEMORIAE REGIS ORTHODOXI, HUC POST OMNES VIRTUTUM AC GLORIAE GRADUS OMNES, QUIESCIT NOBILI SUI PARTE, JOHANNES CASIMIRUS, POLONIAE AC SUECIAE REX, ACTO DE JAGELLONIDUM SANGUINE, FAMILIA VASAEENSI POSTREMUS, QUIA SUMMUS LITTERIS, ARMIS, PIETATE. MULTARUM GENTIUM LINGUAS ADDIDICIT, QUO ILLAS PROPENSIUS SIBI DEVINCIRET, ET DECEM PRAELIIS COLLATES CUM HOSTE SIGNIS TOTIDEM UNO MINUS VICIT, SEMPER INVICTUS. SUECOS, URANDE URGENSES, TARTAROS, GERMANOS ARMIS, EOSQUE REBELLOS GRATIA, AC BENEFICIIS EXPUGNAVIT, IRA REGEM EIS SE PRAEBENS, CLEMENTIA PATREM. IN VIGINTI IMPERII ANNIS, FORTUNAM VIRTUTE VINCENS, ALIAM HABUIT IN CASTRIS, PALATIA IN TENTORIIS, SPECTACULA IN TRIUMPHIS. LIBEROS EX LEGITIMO CONNUBIO SUSCEPIT, QUIBUS POSTEA ORBATUS EST, NE SI SE MAJOREM RELIQUISSET, NON ESSET IPSE MAXIMUS, SIN MINOREM, STIRPS DEGENERARET. PAR EI AD FORTITUDINEM RELIGIO FUIT, NEC SEGNIUS COELO MILITAVIT QUAM SOLO. HINC EXSTRUCTA MONASTERIA ET NOSOCOMIA VARSOVIAE, CALVINIANORUM FANA IN LITHUANIA EXCISA, SOCINIANI REGNO PULSI, NEC CASIMIRUM HABERENT REGEM QUI CHRISTUM DEUM NON HABERENT, SENATUS A VARIIS SECTIS AD CATHOLICAE FIDEI COMMUNIONEM ADDUCTUS, UT ECCLESIAE LEGIBUS CONTINUARENTUR QUI JURA POPULIS DICERENT, UNDE ILLI PRAECLARUM ORTHODOXI NOMEN AB ALEXANDRO VII INDITUM, HUMANAE DENIQUE GLORIAE FASTIGIUM PRAETERGRESSUS, CUM NIHIL PRAECLARIUS AGERE POSSET, IMPERIUM SPONTE ABDICAVIT ANNO MDCLXVIII. TUM PORRO LACRYMAE, QUAS NULLUS REGNANS EXCUSSERAT, OMNIUM OCULIS MANARUNT, QUI ABEUNTEM REGEM, NON SECUS ATQUE OBIENTEM PATREM, LUXERE. VITAE RELIQUIEM IN PIETATIS OFFICIIS CUM EXEGISSET, TANDEM AUDITA CAMENICIAE EXPUGNATIONE, NE TANTI CLADIS SUPERESSET, CARITATE PATRIAE VULNERATUS, OCCUBUIT XVII KAL. JAN. MDCLXXII. REGIUM COR MONACHIS HUJUS COENOBII, CUI ABBAS PRAEFUERAT, AMORIS PIGNUS RELIQUIT. QUOD ILLI ISTHOC TUMULUM MOERENTES CONDIDERUNT. ".

The officers of the Polish king, to show their gratitude, founded in 1671 a solemn mass in the abbey church on 16 December and a silent mass on the 16th of every month in the chapel of St Casimir, decorated at their expense. The painting of St Casimir above the altar is highly regarded; it was painted in Gdansk by a painter called Szultz. The chapel is of mixed architecture, the double columns are of Rance marble, on pedestals of beautiful stone. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, rises from the clouds under the dome. All the details of the sculptures are very carefully finished and their place skilfully chosen; they were made under the direction of Bulet, an architect full of learning. The altar was dedicated to Saint Placid and Saint Casimir by François de Bertaillier, Bishop of Bethlehem, in 1683.

No one would have guessed from the long panegyric carved on John Casimir's tomb the terrible calamities of his reign. But there is something heart-warming in the mention that he could not survive the capture of Kamieniec by the Turks. His despair must have hit the witnesses of his last moments hard, since it was so etched in their memory and inscribed on his tombstone. During the French Revolution in 1793, royal tombs began to be demolished. An art lover, Alexandre Lenoir, is said to have saved the statue of John Casimir by transferring it to the just-founded Musée des Monuments Français at the Convent des Vieux Augustins. Under Louis XVIII, the statue took its former place again. In the early days of the 1831 emigration, Polish services were often held in the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.