August
25Saints of the Day
August
25
Saints of the Day
Founder of the Religious Schools, called the Scolopi or Piarists to
teach neglected children
Joseph was born in Peralta, Aragon, Spain. He went to Rome in
1592 and joined the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, founding his
congregation as a result of his work with neglected children.
Galileo was friend of
Joseph, thus dividing the members into opposite camps.
Joseph suffered unjust accusations but was restored as head
of his congregation before he died. He was canonized in 1767.
The congregation was abolished but restored 9 years after his
death, and doing good work today
Saint Louis IX King of
France (1215-1270)
The most Christian King of France with his mother Queen Blanche of Castile.
Crusader twice, brought the crown of thorns to Notre Dame in Paris... and
peace and justice and holiness
Louis IX of France, king, crusader twice, 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.
At his coronation as king of France, Louis bound himself by oath to behave as God’s anointed, as the father of his people and feudal lord of the King of Peace. Other kings had done the same, of course. Louis was different in that he actually interpreted his kingly duties in the light of faith. After the violence of two previous reigns, he brought peace and justice.
His father was Louis VIII, of the Capet
line, and his mother was the redoubtable Queen Blanche, daughter of King
Alfonso of Castile and Eleanor of England. Louis, the oldest son, was born at
Poissy on the Seine, a little below Paris, on April 25,1214, and there was
christened. Much of his virtue is attributed to his mother's care, for
the Queen devoted herself to her children's education Blanche's primary concern
was to implant in him a deep regard and awe for everything related to religion.
She used often to say to him as he was growing up, "I love you my dear son,
as much as a mother can love her child; but I would rather see you dead at my
feet than that you should commit a 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.
In Louis IX of France were united the qualities of a just and upright sovereign, a fearless warrior, and a saint. This crusading king was a living embodiment of the Christianity of the time: he lived for the welfare of his subjects and the glory of God.
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, his first crusade, 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.
Saints of August 25:
|
|
Art Galleries of Religions and Christianity
The Jerome Bible Commentary, book by
book
1,093 prophecies and types of the Old Testament
fulfilled in Jesus and His Church
Other Web Sites of Dr. Dominguez
(over 300 in English and Spanish)
Home-Index E- Mail to: J. Dominguez, M.D