Louis IX of France, king, crusader, saint; what a world of romance and adventure surrounds the name! He stands with King Arthur and Richard the Lion-Hearted as a hero of the days of knighthood. Yet he also stands with Joan of Arc as a saint of France.

   Born at Poissy on April 25, 1215, Louis was the son of King Louis VIII, and his mother was Blanche of Castile. Since his father died when he was only eleven years old, Queen Blanche was his regent. It was she who instilled in him a desire for holiness and a horror of sin, declaring she would rather see him die than commit a mortal sin. It was she who battled certain feudal lords of the kingdom who sought to take advantage of their king's youth. These lords had banded into a confederation and made extravagant demands, but with the help of allies, Blanche overcame them in the field. She could be fierce in the defense of her son's inheritance.

   Louis married when he was nineteen and two years later took over the rule of his kingdom from Queen Blanche. He never forgot the teachings of his mother nor did he fail throughout the whole of his life to pray frequently (especially the Divine Office), to fast and perform other acts of penance and self-denial, and to follow the ideals he had adopted as a Franciscan tertiary. His friend and biographer, jean (le Joinville, relates that never in the twenty-two years he knew him had Louis ever been heard to use profane language.

   This same biographer tells us of an incident that has ever since stood as a symbol of Saint Louis' entire life. The king and Joinville were talking one day of leprosy, not an uncommon topic of conversation in the thirteenth century. Both had seen the disease many times, both at home and during the Crusades. Joinville declared that his horror of leprosy was such that he would prefer to commit thirty mortal sins than to become a leper. Louis gently reproved him, asserting that he would become a leper thirty times over rather than commit one mortal sin.

   As a king, Louis was necessarily concerned with the virtue of justice. It was with fear and trembling that he had taken up the role of monarch. He did not take his obligations lightly, but remembered well the words of Scripture, "He has put down the mighty from their thrones." He continually fought against abuses, not hesitating to punish nobles as well as those less powerful. He forbade lay investiture, simony, and usury, and sternly punished lords who oppressed their vassals. In December of the year 1244, the king became violently ill, and it was thought that he would die. After a sudden and perhaps miraculous recovery, Louis vowed he would lead a crusade to the Holy Land. Mother and wife wept, and the bishops of Paris and Meaux tried to deter him; but he was not to be dissuaded. After three and a half years of opposition and preparation, he left for Cyprus. His wife and three brothers accompanied him; his mother remained as regent.

   Louis' destination was Egypt, whose sultan had captured Palestine. The city of Damietta on the Nile was easily captured, on June 7, 1249, and Louis made a solemn entry into the city. He came, not with pomp, but with the humility of a truly Christian prince, walking barefoot, in religious procession. After the annual flooding of the Nile, Louis' army advanced across the river to attack the Saracens. Six months of fighting followed, in which the French army was scattered and Louis was taken prisoner. After much mistreatment, and even torture, the king was ransomed, together with the healthy members of his army. The sick and injured had been slain. Louis remained in Palestine, visiting the Holy Places, until 1254 when news arrived of the death of his beloved mother, the queen regent.

   Returning to Paris, Louis ruled with such justice and wisdom that for centuries a dissatisfied Frenchman would call for the kind of justice of the days of King Louis IX. Louis was called upon to act as arbitrator in the feuds of other lands and was the mediator between Henry Ill of England and his barons. He endowed many religious foundations, and also the house of studies now known as the Sorbonne, which his friend Robert de Sorbon had founded in 1253. He fed hundreds of poor people in his palace every day and kept a list of needy persons from every province so he could care for those at a distance. He made the feudal "king's court" a real tribunal of justice; proof by witness and the judicial process replaced the old trial by arms. When he sought to go to the East again, there was an uproar.

   Nonetheless, on July 1, 1270, Louis proceeded to Tunis with his three sons. While awaiting the arrival of his brother, the king of Sicily, dysentery struck the French army and one of Louis' sons died. On the same day Louis and his eldest son, Philip, were stricken with the disease. On Sunday, August 24, the king received the last sacraments, and having summoned the Greek ambassadors, exhorted them to work for union with the Church. He died the following afternoon, uttering with his last breath the words of our Lord on the cross: "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit."