St. Louis IX

King of France for forty-four years, third-order Franciscan, builder of the Sainte-Chapelle to house the relics of the Passion. He fed beggars at his table, abolished trial by ordeal, and led two crusades — dying of dysentery on the second outside Tunis. The only French king to be canonized, his name is borne by an American city, a Caribbean island, and uncounted parishes.

Crowned at twelve after the death of his father Louis VIII, he was raised by his formidable mother Blanche of Castile, who governed as regent and instilled in him a fierce devotion to justice and piety. His reputation for fairness was so great that foreign rulers submitted their disputes to his arbitration.

He reformed French law, forbade private wars among his barons, and established hospitals for the blind and the poor. His personal austerities were severe — hair shirts, fasting, washing the feet of lepers — yet he governed with shrewdness and warmth. On his deathbed he whispered: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem" — the city he had twice failed to reach.