From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   August 25th - Saint Louis IX, King of France   
    (1215-1270)   
      
   The mother of the incomparable Saint Louis IX of France, Blanche of   
   Castille, told him when he was still a child that she would rather see him   
   dead in a coffin than stained by a single mortal sin. He never forgot her   
   words. Raised to the throne and anointed in the Rheims Cathedral at the age   
   of twelve, while still remaining under his mother's regency for several   
   years, he made the defense of God's honor the aim of his life.   
      
   Before one year of their mutual sovereignty had ended, the Catholic armies   
   of France, by a particular blessing, had crushed the Albigensians of the   
   south who had risen up under a heretical prince, and forced them by   
   stringent penalties to respect the Catholic faith. Amid the cares of   
   government, the young prince daily recited the Divine Office and heard two   
   Masses. The most glorious churches in France are still memorials to his   
   piety, among them the beautiful Sainte Chapelle of Notre Dame Cathedral in   
   Paris, where the Crown of Thorns, the great relic which he brought back from   
   the Holy Land, is enshrined. When his courtiers remonstrated with Louis for   
   his law that blasphemers must be branded on the lips, he replied, "I would   
   willingly have my own lips branded if I could thereby root out blasphemy   
   from my kingdom." A fearless protector of the weak and the oppressed, a   
   monarch whose justice was universally recognized, he was chosen to arbitrate   
   in all the great feuds of his age.   
      
   In 1248, to rescue the land where Christ had walked, he gathered round him   
   the chivalry of France, and embarked for the East. He visited the holy   
   places; approaching Nazareth he dismounted, knelt down to pray, then entered   
   on foot. He visited the Holy House of Nazareth and on its wall a fresco was   
   afterwards painted, still visible when the House was translated to Loreto,   
   depicting him offering his manacles to the Mother of God. Wherever he was:   
   at home with his many children, facing the infidel armies, in victory or in   
   defeat, on a bed of sickness or as a captive in chains, King Louis showed   
   himself ever the same - the first, the best, and the bravest of Christian   
   knights.   
      
   When he was a captive at Damietta, an Emir rushed into his tent brandishing   
   a dagger red with the blood of the Sultan, and threatened to stab him also   
   unless he would make him a knight. Louis calmly replied that no unbeliever   
   could perform the duties of a Christian knight. In the same captivity he was   
   offered his liberty on terms lawful in themselves, but enforced by an oath   
   which implied a blasphemy, and although the infidels held their swords'   
   points at his throat and threatened a massacre of the Christians, Louis   
   inflexibly refused.   
      
   The death of his mother recalled him to France in 1252; but when order was   
   re-established he again set out for a second crusade. In August of 1270 his   
   army landed at Tunis, won a victory over the enemy, then was laid low by a   
   malignant fever. Saint Louis was one of the victims. He received the   
   Viaticum kneeling by his camp bed, and gave up his life with the same joy in   
   which he had given all else for the honor of God.   
      
   Reflection: Saint Louis wrote to his oldest son Philip, heir to the crown:   
   "I recommend to you before all else to apply yourself with all your heart to   
   love God."   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither   
   intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.   
   -Saint Therese of Lisieux   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is   
   willing, but the flesh is weak. St. Matthew 26:41   
      
      
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   A prayer from another St. Louis (De Montfort) -a prayer to our Lord :   
      
   O most loving Jesus, deign to let me pour forth my gratitude before Thee,   
   for the grace Thou hast bestowed upon me in giving me to Thy holy Mother   
   through the devotion of Holy Bondage, that she may be my advocate in the   
   presence of Thy majesty and my support in my extreme misery.  Alas, O Lord!   
   I am so wretched that without this dear Mother I should be certainly lost.   
   Yes, Mary is necessary for me at Thy side and everywhere that she may   
   appease Thy just wrath, because I have so often offended Thee; that she may   
   save me from the eternal punishment of Thy justice, which I deserve; that   
   she may contemplate Thee, speak to Thee, pray to Thee, approach Thee and   
   please Thee; that she may help me to save my soul and the souls of others;   
   in short, Mary is necessary for me that I may always do Thy holy will and   
   seek Thy greater glory in all things. Ah, would that I could proclaim   
   throughout the whole world the mercy that Thou hast shown to me!  Would that   
   everyone might know I should be already damned, were it not for Mary! Would   
   that I might offer worthy thanksgiving for so great a blessing! Mary is in   
   me. Oh, what a treasure!  Oh, what a consolation! And shall I not be   
   entirely hers?  Oh, what ingratitude!  My dear Saviour, send me death rather   
   than such a calamity, for I would rather die than live without belonging   
   entirely to Mary. With St. John the Evangelist at the foot of the Cross, I   
   have taken her a thousand times for my own and as many times have given   
   myself to her; but if I have not yet done it as Thou, dear Jesus, dost wish,   
   I now renew this offering as Thou dost desire me to renew it.  And if Thou   
   seest in my soul or my body anything that does not belong to this august   
   princess, I pray Thee to take it and cast it far from me, for whatever in me   
   does not belong to Mary is unworthy of Thee.   
      
   O Holy Spirit, grant me all these graces.  Plant in my soul the Tree of true   
   Life, which is Mary; cultivate it and tend it so that it may grow and   
   blossom and bring forth the fruit of life in abundance.  O Holy Spirit, give   
   me great devotion to Mary, Thy faithful spouse; give me great confidence in   
   her maternal heart and an abiding refuge in her mercy, so that by her Thou   
   mayest truly form in me Jesus Christ, great and mighty, unto the fullness of   
   His perfect age.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)