Death and Legacy
| Saint Louis | |
|---|---|
Louis IX of France was revered as a saint and painted in portraiture well after his death (such portraits may not accurately reflect his appearance). This portrait was painted by El Greco c. 1592–95. |
|
| King of France, Confessor | |
| Born | (1214-04-25)25 April 1214 Poissy, France |
| Died | 25 August 1270(1270-08-25) (aged 56) Tunis in what is now Tunisia |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion |
| Canonized | 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII |
| Feast | 25 August |
| Attributes | Depicted as King of France, generally with a crown, holding a sceptre with a fleur-de-lys on the end, possibly with blue clothing with a spread of white fleur-de-lys (coat of arms of the French monarchy) |
| Patronage | Third Order of St. Francis, France, French monarchy; hairdressers; passementiers (lacemakers) |
During his second crusade, Louis died at Tunis, 25 August 1270. As Tunis was Muslim territory, his body was subject to the process known as mos Teutonicus (a postmortem funerary custom used in mediæval Europe whereby the flesh was boiled from the body, so that the bones of the deceased could be transported hygienically from distant lands back home.) for its transportation back to France. He was succeeded by his son, Philip III. Louis was traditionally believed to have died from the bubonic plague but the cause is thought by modern scholars to have been dysentery. The bubonic plague did not strike Europe until 1348, so the likelihood of his contracting and ultimately dying from the bubonic plague was very slim.
Christian tradition states that some of his entrails were buried directly on the spot in Tunisia, where a Tomb of Saint-Louis can still be visited today, whereas his heart and other parts of his entrails were sealed in an urn and placed in the Basilica of Monreale, Palermo, where they still remain. (Sicily was at that time ruled by his younger brother, Charles of Anjou, and the French army returned to France through the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily.) His corpse was taken, after a short stay at the Basilica of Saint Dominic in Bologna, to the French royal necropolis at Saint-Denis, resting in Lyon on the way. His tomb at Saint-Denis was a magnificent gilt brass monument designed in the late 14th century. It was melted down during the French Wars of Religion, at which time the body of the king disappeared. Only one finger was rescued and is kept at Saint-Denis.
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