Kasia's Story

Book excerpt: After the death of her husband, Katarzyna Weiglowa (Kasia) begins to find her own way in the world. She and Melchior, a bookish couple more interested in big ideas than new furniture, had taken their first steps toward answering the question of whether the God in the Church was the same God they found in their hearts. No longer in need of their big house in Krakow, Kasia accepts an offer from Mosche Fiszel, an old friend and customer of her husband’s, to move among his Jewish neighbors in Kazimierz. The adventure of living as a Christian in a Jewish community and exploring Mosche’s brand of spirituality helps to fill an emptiness in her heart. On a trip to Silesia to visit Melchior’s dying brother, she and her son Andrzej cross paths with religious reformers. Kasia joins a community who question their faith by attending salons held by free thinkers from Krakow’s University. She is shaken deeply when she learns that some of the reformers she has met have been executed for their beliefs. But her letters to them, asking deep questions about her faith, have been intercepted by the Church. She is tried for suspicion of heresy. While in prison and after much soul-searching she recants her apostasy and is released with the warning that the next time it will not go so easily for her. Almost a decade later as the Polish legislature debates the question of what to do with the Jews, who are competing with Christian merchants and it is said proselytizing their religion, Kasia becomes the first woman invited to address the Polish Sejm. When she throws Christ’s words at them, reminding them that the true Christian loves his or her neighbor, she becomes persona non gratis to the conservatives, is re-arrested, tried again and sentenced to burn as an unrepentant heretic. Meanwhile, in parallel chapters, Poland’s new queen Bona Sforza struggles to adapt to the Polish climate and culture. Her relationship as a child with Leonardo daVinci, come to Milan to paint his Last Supper, remains a touchstone of her life. Married to the much-older King Zygmunt, Bona struggles to protect herself, her inheritance, and her children by building her own power base at Wawel Castle. At her husband’s request she begins a correspondence with the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman’s wife Roxelana, a Polish woman captured in a slave raid. To strengthen her political base against her husband’s she establishes a surreptitious line of communication with Istanbul, a dangerous and potentially treasonous act. Kasia’s and the Queen’s stories intersect when Kasia’s fate falls into the Queen’s hands. After a miscarriage throws her into her own religious doubts, will she follow her conscience and have Kasia released, or will she give in to political expediency and hand the old woman over to the Church?