ST. louis church, dahisar

August 25 is the feast day of Saint Louis IX, King of France, patron saint of our parish.

Here is his life story

St. Louis IX is the eldest son of Louis VIII of Capet Line, and his mother, Queen Blanche, daughter of King Alfonso of Castile and Eleanor of England. He was born on April 5, 1214 at Poissy in the Siene, a little below Paris. His mother devoted herself to her children’s education which attributed to his virtue. His tutors made him master of Latin, public speaking and how to write with dignity and grace. He was instructed in the government and arts of ward and all other kingly accomplishments. Religion was the primary concern of his parents for him. His mother often used to say to him as he was growing up, “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 commit a mortal sin.”

Louis never forgot his upbringing. Sieur de Joinville, his friend and biographer, went with him to Holy Land for his first crusade. His friend relates that the king once asked him, “What is God?” Joinville answered, “Sire, it is that which is so good that there can be nothing better.” Louis asked again, “Now tell me, would you rather be a leper or commit mortal sin?” The friend replied, “I would rather commit thirty mortal sins than be a leper.” Louis opposed strongly: “When a man dies, he is healed of leprosy in his body, but when a man who has committed a mortal sin dies he cannot know for certain that he has in his lifetime repented in such a way that God has forgiven him.”

His father, Louis VIII, died after reigning only for three years. Because of the uprising of restless nobles, Louis was crowned at Rheims on Advent 1226. At the age of twenty, Louis married Margaret, the oldest daughter of Raymond Beranger, Count of Provence in May 1234. They had fives sons and six daughters.

Louis helped his mother found the convent of Maubuison and gave the religious orders the encouragement to install the Carthusians in the place of Vauvert in Paris. He heard two masses daily, loved sermons and surrounded by priests chanting the hours while traveling. He did not hesitate to oppose churchmen when they proved unworthy. His friend writes, “Never once did I hear him swear, either by God, or His Mother, or His Saints. I did not even hear him name the devil, except if he met when reading aloud or when discussing what had been read.”

In 1230 the King forbade all kinds of usury, protected vassals and tenants from cruel lords. He fined the guilty party heavily and ordered the money spent on religious and charitable works.
He went to two crusades with his wife, brothers and children to spread Christian faith. In one of his crusades he was once captured and put to prison. During his stay in prison, the King recited Divine Office everyday with two chaplains and mass prayers were read to him.

Louis helped endow the famous college of theology founded by his friend, Master Robert de Sorgon in 1257. He himself founded Quinze-vingt hospital of Parish which bed 300 patients.

He was devoted to his people, founding hospitals, visiting the sick and, like his patron Saint Francis, caring even for people with leprosy. (He is one of the patrons of the Secular Franciscan Order.) Louis united France—lords and townsfolk, peasants and priests and knights—by the force of his personality and holiness. For many years the nation was at peace.
Every day Louis had 13 special guests from among the poor to eat with him, and a large number of the poor were served meals near his palace. During Advent and Lent, all who presented themselves were given a meal, and Louis often served them in person. He kept lists of needy people, whom he regularly relieved in every province of his dominion.

King Louis IX of France (r. 1226-70), later Saint Louis, undertook two crusades to the Holy Land. He acquired relics of Christ’s passion from his cousin, the Latin emperor of Constantinople Baldwin II, most notably a piece of the True Cross and also the Crown of Thorns. He brought these relics to Paris and installed them in the Sainte-Chapelle, a church that he had built to house them. According to a contemporary chronicle, on the way to Paris Louis stopped at Sens, where the Crown of Thorns was placed in the cathedral overnight. This panel shows Louis at Sens with his brother and some courtiers. Clad in simple clothes, the crowned King Louis carries the extraordinary relic atop a chalice.

On July 1, 1270 Louis sailed with his forces to Tunis. He was told that the emir was ready to be converted and join the expedition to win back Holy Places. The crusade was as failure because the emir’s information was false. During his stay there, Louis and his eldest son got sick of dysentery. Louis was not able to recover and at three in the afternoon he said, “Into Thy Hands I commend my spirit” and he died.

His bones and heart were kept in the Abbey-Church of St. Denis in France until they were scattered at the time of revolution. He became Saint of the Church in 1297, twenty-seven years after his death.

VENERATION AS A SAINT

Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the canonisation of Louis in 1297; he is the only French king to be declared a saint. Louis IX is often considered the model of the ideal Christian monarch. The influence of his canonization was so great that many of his successors were named Louis after him. The Relics of St. Louis are preserved at Notre Dame Cathedral, France.

Named in his honour, the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis is a Roman Catholic religious order founded in Vannes, France, in 1803. A similar order, the Sisters of St Louis, was founded in Juilly in 1842.
He is honoured as co-patron of the Third Order of St. Francis, which claims him as a member of the Order. Even in childhood, his compassion for the poor and suffering people was known to those who were close to him. When he became king, over a hundred poor people were served meals in his house on ordinary days. Often the king served these guests himself. Such acts of charity, coupled with Louis’s devout religious practices, gave rise to the legend that he joined the Third Order of St. Francis. Though it is unlikely that Louis did join the order, his life and actions proclaimed him as one of them in spirit.

 

THINGS NAMED AFTER SAINT LOUIS

• The French royal Order of Saint Louis (1693–1790 and 1814–1830)

PLACES
Many countries in which French speakers and Catholicism were prevalent named places after King Louis:

• San Luis Province in Argentina
• San Luis Potosí in Mexico
• St. Louis, Missouri, USA, named by French colonists
• Île Saint-Louis, an island in the river Seine, Paris, France
• Saint-Louis, New Caledonia, France
• Saint-Louis, Senegal
• São Luís, Maranhão in Brazil
• San Luis, Aurora in the Philippines
• San Luis, Pampanga in the Philippines
• San Luis, Batangas in the Philippines

BUILDINGS

• A hospital in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France
• The Cathédrale Saint-Louis de Versailles in Versailles, France
• The Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, completed in 1834 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA
• The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, completed in 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA
• The St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, USA
• Saint Louis Catholic High School, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA
• Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, Oceanside, California, USA, founded June 12, 1798
• The national church of France in Rome: San Luigi dei Francesi in Italian, or Saint Louis of France in English
• The Cathedral of St Louis in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
• The Cathedral of St Louis in Carthage, Tunisia, so named because Louis IX died at that approximate location in 1270
• The Church of St Louis in Moscow, Russia
• Rue Saint Louis of Pondicherry, India.

NOTABLE PORTRAITS

• A bas-relief of St. Louis is one of the carved portraits of historic lawmakers that adorns the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.
• Saint Louis is also portrayed on a frieze depicting a timeline of important lawgivers throughout world history, on the North Wall of the Courtroom at the Supreme Court of the United States.[59]
• A statue of St. Louis by the sculptor John Donoghue stands on the roofline of the New York State Appellate Division Court at 27 Madison Avenue in New York City.
• The Apotheosis of St. Louis is an equestrian statue of the saint, by Charles Henry Niehaus, that stands in front of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park.
• A heroic portrait by Baron Charles de Steuben hangs in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. An 1821 gift of King Louis XVIII of France, it depicts St. Louis burying his plague-stricken troops before the siege of Tunis at the beginning of the Eighth Crusade in 1270