THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS a weekly bulletin & newsletter August 26, 2018 • 21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time
O U R PAT R O N - K I N G L O U I S I X SAINT FOR THE AGES
King Louis IX, was born at Poissy, France in 1214 to King Louis VIII and Queen Blanche of Castille. A member of the House of Capet, Louis was twelve years old when his father died in November 1226. He was crowned king within the month at Rheims Cathedral but because of his youth, his mother ruled France as regent during his minority until approximately 1234. She continued as an important counselor to the king until her death in 1252. On May 27, 1234, Louis married Margaret of Provence and they had eleven children. Although only eight of them lived to adulthood, their lineage continued its power in France for five hundred years. The King himself founded a hospital in Paris that had beds for 300 patients. He also received indigent persons daily and personally saw that they were fed. He spent his life crusading for justice, fostering the development of standardized court procedures that helped establish order within his kingdom. He was as much a crusader to promote the common good of his subjects as he was a brave, intrepid warrior fighting the Saracens to free the Holy Land. King Louis had a reputation of being a man of prayer, entirely devoted to his people and the spread of Christianity. He took very seriously his mission as “lieutenant of God on Earth”, with which he had been invested when he was crowned.
To fulfill this mission, Louis led two Crusades and although the first one, (1248-1254) known as the Seventh Crusade, achieved little, it contributed to his prestige in Europe. In 1250, weakened by dysentery, Louis was taken prisoner in Egypt and his army ranks were thinned more by disease than by combat. During his captivity the King recited the Divine Office every day with two chaplains and had the prayers of the Mass read to him. King Louis’ second attempt known as the Eighth Crusade was taken when he was in his mid-50’s and successfully liberated thousands of Christian captives in the Holy Land, but sadly he died in Tunis on August 25, 1270. Unable to speak on his last morning, history notes that at three in the afternoon he said, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit” and quickly breathed his last. His bones and heart were taken back to France and kept enshrined in the abbey-church of St. Denis, until they were scattered at the time of the French Revolution. Because of the aura of holiness attached to his memory, many kings of France were thereafter called Louis. The man who was “every inch a king” became a saint of the Church in 1297, just twenty-seven years after his death, the only French monarch so honored. Information resources: Wikipedia and Eternal Word Television Network Library.
IN MEMORY Bishop John E. McCarthy See story page 3