On 25 August, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Louis, king and patron saint of France. Son of Blanche of Castile and Louis VIII, Louis IX ascended the throne of France at the age of twelve and reigned over the Christian kingdom for 44 years.
A courageous knight, Saint of justice, the common good, and the family, he was concerned to ensure that God’s will reigned on earth by making no class distinctions between his subjects. from 1254 he undertook a vast reform of legal institutions. He set up bailiffs and created the institutions that were to become the Parlement and the Cour des Comptes “audit institution”. He also decided to punish gambling and interest-bearing loans for his people’s welfare.
Louis IX considered himself to be supremely responsible for justice in his kingdom. His subjects therefore routinely turned to the king to right a wrong or reform a ruling. During the “plaids de la porte”, the gentlemen of the king’s retinue listened to the complainants at the entrance to the palace and then came to report problems to their king. Sitting at the side of his bed, Saint Louis Saint would call the parties of conflict to propose solutions. In the summer, the king takes up residence in the garden of the Palais de la Cité. On a carpet, he sets with his with his advisors, who he never leaves. But most often, it was in the Vincennes Forest that Saint Louis liked to hold court while leaning his back against an oak tree. There he received litigants from all walks of life, humble peasants, craftsmen from the towns and noble warriors. To all of them, he gave his undivided attention and his leniency.
Louis IX wanted to make France the eldest daughter of the Church, and Paris a center of Christianity. On 26 April 1248, he inaugurated the Sainte-Chapelle on the Île de la Cité, intended to house the Holy Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the Holy Cross (purchased from Venetian bankers, who had themselves received it as a surety bond from Baldwin of Courtenay, the Latin emperor of Byzantium).
Raised nobly by his mother in fear of mortal sin, Louis IX demonstrated a profound piety. Tall and slim, but in fragile health, he committed to attending masses every day. Strongly inspired by the mendicant orders (Franciscans and Dominicans), whose company he enjoyed (in particular, he received Saint Bonaventure, a Franciscan, and Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, both Doctors of the Church), despite his high functions, he adopted a simple, sober, even austere lifestyle, marked by works of mercy towards the poorest in his kingdom.
He frequently welcomed the poor to his table and gave them a few dons after serving them meat and bread himself. He also showed his humility by washing their feet, like Jesus at the Last Supper, and did not hesitate to do them justice. To alleviate the misery of the blind, he had built for them the Quinze-Vingt hospital in Paris.
Saint Louis was very attached to Eastern Christianity, which he encountered in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine.
His boundless faith led him to organize the seventh crusade to Egypt in 1248. The crusaders easily took control of Damietta in June 1249, but were slow to advance towards Cairo. They were hindered by the flooding of the Nile, and had to fight in poor conditions at Mansourah in February 1250. In desperate circumstances, they were forced to retreat, a terrible epidemic having decimated a large part of the troops.
On 5 April, the ill king was imprisoned and brought back to Mansourah. Having fallen into the hands of the Mamelukes (who had just overthrown the Sultan), Saint Louis was in great danger, but he showed admirable courage and, in the face of adversity, impressed even his enemies. After tough negotiations, they released him in exchange for the return of Damietta and a huge ransom of 400,000 pounds. The poor Christian army could leave Egypt, and the king undertook to scrupulously respect the conditions he had sworn to for its release.
After four years in the Holy Land, helping the Crusader states to reorganize their defense and administration systems, he was forced to return to France after his mother’s death in 1252.
In France, he strengthened royal power and attempted to pacify the kingdom with patience and fairness. He laid the foundations for a parliamentary system and, in 1259, signed a peace treaty with Henry III, King of England, putting an end to the First Hundred Years’ War.
His obligations as sovereign did not overshadow his duties as a crusader. So, he set sail in July 1270 from Aigues-Mortes for Tunis. But as soon as he reached his destination, the king and his army fell victim to the plague. Louis IX died on 25 August in front of Tunis, exhausted by the heat and thirst.
A prestigious monarch during his lifetime, he will stay in history as one of the greatest kings of the Capetian dynasty, known for his acute sense of justice, his love of the poorest and his profound piety.
Saint Louis was canonized in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII.
