Casimir with the double-hand
[1458-1484]
In Lithuania, Vilnius Cathedral occupies the former site of a pagan temple to the Baltic god of thunder, Perkūnas, where a fire once burned night and day, tended by virgins chosen for their beauty. Today, the church contains the remains of Casimir, a virgin of a later era. A Lithuanian prince of the 15th century, he died from lung disease at the age of 25 — one doctor famously suggested prince have sex to improve his chances of recovery, which he piously declined.
Today in the same church hangs a miraculous painting of Casimir. Probably completed around 1520, and now coated in a layer of silver, it depicts the saint with one left and two right hands. Supposedly, when the artist decided he wanted to change how he’d done the right hand and painted another, the first one refused to be covered up, a testament to the prince’s aggressive generosity. If this were a different newsletter, I’d say I wasn’t so sure that was the reason and make a joke about his love of j*cking off.