St. Louis IX of France

St. Louis IX of France (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270) reigned as king of France from 1226, guided in his youth by his devout mother, Blanche of Castile. He became the model of a Christian monarch: just, prudent, and deeply pious. He reformed the administration of justice — famously hearing petitions from his subjects beneath an oak at Vincennes — curbed private warfare and abuses among the nobility, and founded hospitals and institutions for the poor, the blind, and the outcast, whom he served personally, even feeding and washing the feet of beggars.

A man of intense prayer and penance, he built the exquisite Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house relics of Christ's Passion, including the Crown of Thorns. He led the Seventh Crusade to Egypt, where he was captured and ransomed, and died of disease at Tunis in 1270 while on a second crusade. Renowned for his integrity and holiness throughout Christendom, he was canonized by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297, the only French king to be declared a saint, and is a patron of France and of the Third Order of St. Francis.