St. Louis IX

The Holy King

St. Louis IX (1214-1270) is the only canonized King of France. Ascending the throne at age 12 under the regency of his pious mother, Blanche of Castile, he grew into a ruler who perfectly blended the duties of a monarch with the virtues of a saint. His mother famously told him, "I love you, my dear son, as much as a mother can love her child; but I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should ever commit a mortal sin."

Louis took this to heart. He was a just judge, a protector of the poor, and a devoted husband and father of eleven children.

Justice and Charity

King Louis was known for his accessibility. He would often sit under an oak tree in the Bois de Vincennes to hear the cases of his subjects, ensuring that justice was served regardless of a person's status. He founded hospitals and insisted on feeding the poor from his own table, often serving them himself.

He was a man of peace among Christian nations, often acting as an arbiter in disputes between other monarchs to prevent war.

Sainte-Chapelle and the Passion

Louis had a deep devotion to the Passion of Christ. He acquired the Crown of Thorns and other relics of the Passion from the Latin Emperor of Constantinople. To house these sacred treasures, he built the magnificent Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, a jewel of Gothic architecture designed to be a giant reliquary of light.

The Crusader

Like many men of his time, Louis believed it was his duty to protect the Holy Land. He led two Crusades. The first was a failure where he was captured and held for ransom (which he paid without complaint). He died of dysentery during his second Crusade in Tunis in 1270.

While the Crusades are viewed differently today, Louis's motivation was genuine religious zeal and a desire to safeguard the places where Christ walked.

Quotable Wisdom

"Fair son, the first thing I would teach thee is to set thine heart to love God; for unless he love God none can be saved."

These opening words from his last testament to his son sum up his entire philosophy of kingship.

Louis IX and the Jews of France

Louis IX's reign included harsh measures against French Jews that belong on his page. He had Jewish books seized after the Disputation of Paris in 1240, and in 1242 roughly twenty four cartloads of Talmud manuscripts were burned in Paris, acting on the condemnation Pope Gregory IX had issued in 1239. In December 1254 he barred Jews from lending at interest and threatened expulsion for those who kept banned books, and on 19 June 1269 he ordered French Jews to wear the rouelle, a coloured cloth disc. These were open royal acts recorded as policy, and Jean de Joinville's Life of Saint Louis records him saying that a layman who hears the Christian faith insulted should answer with a sword. Louis framed the measures as duties of a Christian king and never reversed them. The general expulsion of Jews from France came in 1306 under his grandson Philip IV, after Louis's death, and should not be attributed to him. He was canonized in 1297 without these acts being addressed, and they stand alongside the justice and almsgiving for which he is remembered.