Le 25 août, l’Église célèbre Saint Louis (Louis IX, roi de France, 1214-1270), l’un des rares rois canonisés de l’histoire. Élevé dans la foi par sa mère Blanche de Castille, Louis incarne l’idéal du souverain chrétien : juste, charitable et profondément pieux.
Roi bâtisseur, il fit ériger la Sainte-Chapelle pour abriter la Couronne d’épines du Christ, qu’il avait acquise à Constantinople. Père des pauvres, il servait lui-même les plus démunis dans les hôpitaux. Mais il fut aussi un croisé, partant deux fois en Terre sainte, où il mourut en 1270 à Tunis, lors de la huitième croisade.
Canonisé en 1297, Saint Louis est aujourd’hui le patron de la France et le modèle du roi chrétien, uni à la fois dans la prière et dans l’action. Son exemple nous invite à rechercher la justice et la miséricorde dans nos vies.
00:00On August 25, the church celebrates Saint Louis, King of France, known as Louis IX.
00:08He is one of the few canonized kings and remains a model of a Christian sovereign, at once powerful, just and profoundly humble.
00:18Louis was born in 1214 in Poissy, son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile.
00:26From his childhood, he received a deeply Christian education from his mother.
00:32It is said that she would repeatedly tell him, "I would love you as much as I could, but I would rather see you dead than guilty of a single mortal sin."
00:43This sentence marks the future king.
00:47Having become king twelve years after his father's death, he reigned first under the energetic regency of Blanche.
00:53Then, when he came of age, Louis took control of the kingdom.
01:00His reign lasted more than forty years, from 1226 to 1270.
01:07Louis is recognized as a king of peace and justice.
01:11He reforms institutions, sets up investigations to monitor abuses by royal officers,
01:18and installs under an oak tree in Vincennes the famous image of the king himself administering justice, listening to the most humble.
01:28But Louis is not only an administrative king, he is a fervent Christian.
01:34His piety led him to build magnificent churches,
01:37the most famous of which remains the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris,
01:42built to house Christ's crown of thorns,
01:46which he had acquired from Constantinople.
01:49He is also a deeply charitable king.
01:54He himself treats lepers,
01:57feeds the poor,
01:58founds hospitals and monasteries.
02:02For him, governing is above all about serving.
02:06Louis IX was driven by the ideal of the crusade.
02:11In 1248, he left for the East during the Seventh Crusade.
02:16But the Egyptian campaign turned into a disaster.
02:19He was taken prisoner in Mansoura,
02:22then released for ransom.
02:24Far from being discouraged,
02:26he remains four years in the holy land,
02:29fortifying Christian cities
02:30and helping local populations.
02:33In 1270, despite his age and fragile health,
02:38he goes back on crusade,
02:40this time towards Tunis.
02:43But he contracted the plague there.
02:45and died on August 25, 1270
02:49on a simple camp bed,
02:52repeating the words of the psalm
02:54“Lord, I will come into your house.”
02:58Very quickly, the fame of his holiness spread.
03:02Barely 27 years after his death,
03:05in 1297,
03:07Pope Boniface VIII officially canonized him.
03:12Saint Louis became the model of the Christian king,
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