St Louis IX King Confessor (1214-1270)

Born on 25 April 1214, St Louis was the son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille, and, was only 11 when he became king on his father’s death in 1226. For 10 years he ruled under his wise mother’s guardianship, and she continued to exert a beneficent influence on French affairs until her death in 1252. At 19, he married Marguerite of Provence, who bore him 10 children; he proved himself a devoted husband and father.

By nature and upbringing deeply religious, Louis never forgot his mother’s assertion: “I would rather see you dead at my feet than guilty of one mortal sin!” Each day he took time to attend two Masses, to recite the Divine Office and, unknown to his subjects, spent long hours in prayer and acts of penance. The custom of genuflecting during the Creed at the homo factus est and at the passages in the Gospels pertaining to the Lord’s death on the Cross, owes its origin to him. Indifferent to personal comfort, his tender sympathies went out to the poor and unfortunate —- besides several hospitals he also founded a home for 300 blind men and a shelter for reformed prostitutes; each day he fed the poor and ministered to the lepers. He also revolutionized the dispensation of justice by requiring proofs to be submitted by competent witnesses and pennitting appeals from the baron’s court to himself in place of the customary private duels and feuds.

Strong-willed yet holy, he was a friend of the clergy and particularly of the young Franciscan and Dominidan Orders, himself becoming a Franciscan tertiary before embarking on the seventh Crusade. He lent his support to the carrying out of synodal decrees against the unwarranted molestations of the barons or even his own officers. As a true knight with a high sense of Christian morals he would not permit any obscenity or scandalous language at his court. Probably most famous among the buildings which he caused to be erected, are the college of the Sorbonne, which became the theological faculty of Paris, and the Sainte Chapelle, an architectural gem, which housed the relics of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns.

In the political field St Louis was able to terminate the Albegensian war in the south, put down the rebellion of Count de Ja Marche and concluded the treaty between Paris and England in 1259. He also acted as arbiter in the dispute between the Pope and the Emperor. But uppermost in his mind was the hope of recapturing the holy places in Palestine from the Turks. In 1248, he succeeded in taking Damietta in the 7th Crusade but was himself taken prisoner and had to be ransomed; 22 years later, i.e. on 25 August 1270, when he was on another campaign, he succumbed to a malignant fever brought on by the plagues at Tunis.

Canonized in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII, St Louis is revered as the patron of stone masons, printers and barbers.

Reflection: “Be always ready rather to suffer all manner of torments than to commit any mortal sin” (St Louis).