It was built by the Jesuits with funding by the Great Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Lew Sapieha, Voivode of Vilnius Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł, and other nobles.

[3] It is traditionally assumed that the corner stone (which can be seen on the façade wall) was pulled into the city by procession of 700 Vilniusites from the Antakalnis hills.

Its spatial composition and facade were designed along the line of the famous Il Gesù church in Rome.

[4] The author of the design was Jan Frankiewicz,[4][1] a pupil of architect Giovanni Maria Bernardoni.

In 1919 the church of St. Casimir was returned to the Catholics, but was damaged again during the Second World War, closed down and in 1963 converted into a Museum of Atheism.