St Louis IX of France (1214-1270)
Feast day: 25 August
St Louis is unusual among canonized saints in that he was a husband and father as well as a king. He came to the throne of France in 1226 at the age of twelve. His mother, Blanche of Castile, was a formidable woman. She was extremely devout but also politically astute. As regent, she succeeded in keeping the throne secure for her son until he came of age. We are fortunate in that we have a contemporary account of Louis’ life written by Jean Sire de Joinville, who was a friend and companion of the king. Louis married Marguerite of Provence, sister of the English queen consort Eleanor, when he was twenty and she was twelve. The young couple soon ran into mother-in-law problems, as Blanche was very jealous of their relationship and tried to prevent.them meeting. However, with the connivance of the servants, Marguerite and Louis managed to get together and eventually they were blessed with eleven children whose upbringing and education he cared for personally, giving them wise advice which we have on record. Louis seems to have had a gift in personal relationships. He was often called upon to mediate in various disputes, even outside Fance. Perhaps he had learnt to do this from coping with his own domestic situation! He was very generous in the peace terms with his brother in law, Henry III of England, who had invaded France twice.
Louis - unlike many other saints - had no choice in his calling in life. His vision was therefore to live out the gospel in his everyday life as king, husband and father. He tried to govern France justly, and made himself available to his subjects by sitting under an oak tree in the Bois de Vincennes and listening to their grievances. He would personally attend to the poor and the sick and was generous with alms. Arts and culture flourished during his reign; the Sorbonne was founded and Louis was responsible for building the beautiful La Sainte Chapelle, with its magnificent stained glass, to house the Crown of Thorns which he had bought from the Byzantine Emperor.
Louis went on two crusades. Nowadays we would have a different view of religious conflict but the king, with his deep love of Christ, wanted to win back the Holy Land. His dealings with his adversaries were conducted honourably: he insisted on paying his ransom in full when captured in Egypt, for which he earned the title of "Just Sultan." He also spent a long time in dialogue with Muslims. The eighth crusade, which took him to what is now Tunisia, cost him his life: he died in Carthage in 1270.
St Louis was a very human saint. He had to struggle like the rest of us with his personal weaknesses. He had a quick temper which he had to learn to curb. His attitudes and religious practices might sometimes seem hard to understand today, but he was a man of his times and he seems to have been highly regarded by his contemporaries.
St Louis, husband, father and king, pray for us.