ABSTRACT
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the patrimony and political point of origin of the Jagiellonians and was ruled by them as grand dukes from the fourteenth until the late sixteenth century. The close association of Lithuania and Poland culminated in the establishment of the Commonwealth of both nations in 1569 during the reign of Sigismund Augustus. During the first half of the seventeenth century, kings, magnates, and monastic orders promoted the saint's cult. The saint's lives always emphasised his status as prince of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, and this repetition of ducal titles in text and iconography firmly sustained the Jagiellonian association. The selective work of memory also contributed towards concentrating memories of the Jagiellonians in Vilnius and around the framing personalities of the dynasty — Jogaila and his great-grandson Sigismund Augustus. The Jagiellonians are implicitly considered a native dynasty, in contrast to the Vasas, labelled as 'rulers of foreign origin'.
