Chapels of St. Casimir and the Immaculate Conception at the Vilnius Cathedral as seen by Carmelite nuns – unrecognised source from 1638

The article recalls a source from 1638 which has hitherto not been referred to in the subject-matter literature, concerning the history of two chapels at the cathedral in Vilnius: the chapel of St. Casimir founded by King Zygmunt III, and the chapel of the Immaculate Conception which was furnished as a burial chapel by Bishop Eustachy Wołłowicz (lit. Eustachijus Valavičius). The source is a diary from travels from Lublin to Vilnius (14 November–26 December 1638) written by Carmelite nuns when going to a new monastery founded by Stefan Pac (lit. Steponas Pacas) and his wife Anna Maria Ancilia née Rudomina–Dusiacka (lit. Ona Marija Ancilia Rudomina-Dusiackaitė). The memoirs were written by a nun, Mary Magdalene (Anna Żaboklicka) who described various aspects of their journeys as well as a visit to the Vilnius Cathedral organised by the Pac family. The nuns were particularly impressed by the chapel of St. Casimir. Thanks to the fact that the nun described the chapel in detail, it was possible to reconstruct the subjects of some paintings by Bartłomiej Strobel, and to additionally interpret several facts connected with the appearance of the altar with the reliquary of St. Casimir. Even though the description of the chapel of Bishop Eustachy Wołłowicz is not as detailed, it should be underlined that by inviting the nuns there, the Pac family wanted to emphasise their kinship with the monarch of Vilnius, who was commonly highly regarded