Tablica z wileńskiego kościoła pw. św. Kazimierza z roku 1630 na cmentarzu na Rossie

ENIn 2013, during comprehensive cataloging of Vilnius cemetery, a 17th-century plaque from the Vilnius Jesuit Church of St. Casimir was found. It was set in a gravestone with the shape popular from the 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe. The Latin inscription reads that the plaque was to commemorate the funding of the building of confraternity of musician by the Vilnius canon Melchior Gieysza Heliaszewicz at the Church of St. Casimir in Vilnius, so the plaque is an important relic of musical culture, intensively promoted and developed in Vilnius by the Jesuit Order. Jesuits were the patrons of the hall of residence for musicians at the Vilnius Jesuit High School, and the musical circle was gathered around the house of professors at the Monastery of St. Casimir. The plaque was probably ordered by the founder of the building of confraternity of musicians at the Church of St. Casimir. After Melchior Gieysza Heliaszewicz was granted the office of bishop in 1631, grateful residents of the house of professors supplemented the inscription, adding some information in the eighth verse. Although abbreviations were used, the addition disturbed the original orderly composition. It seems that the plaque survived in quite a good condition the calamities befalling the church, such as the occupation of Vilnius by Muscovite army in the years 1655–1660 or a great fire of the city in 1749. It was probably removed to the Rasos Cemetery in the years 1864–1868, when the church was transformed into an Orthodox one. Then, the modest plaque became a valuable relic of the Jesuit monastery that had been closed down. About 20 years later, it was found by Antoni Łazarowicz, a clerk, teacher, poet and translator, as well as a collector and promoter of history, who was interested in the history of Vilnius cemeteries.Cataloging them from 1842, he created the first corpus of gravestones. During one of his visits to the Rasos Cemetery, in November 1886, Antoni Łazarowicz found the cracked plaque from the Church of St. Casimir under a layer of soil and leaves. He copied the inscription from it and recorded its location. Another person who took an interest in the plaque was a fan of Vilnius cemeteries, journalist and collector, Lucjan Uziębło. Worried about the condition of many historically and artistically important gravestones, he sought help from the parish priest from post-Jesuit Church of St. John, rev. Kazimierz Pacynka, a lover of music and organizer of many patriotic events. After collecting money from parishioners in 1904, rev. Kazimierz Pacynka had the 17th-century plaque framed, to make it similar to the gravestones popular then. Those actions, undoubtedly taken for emancipatory purposes, were semi-official, and took place at the moment of liberalization of the tsar’s policy, just before the Edict of Toleration of April 17, 1905. They were part of the process of activation of the society in the western part of the Russian Empire around the Roman Catholic Church.