This week in Christian history: Bakker fraud trial begins, Louis IX dies and massacre in Orissa
Saint Louis IX dies – Aug. 25, 1270
This week marks the anniversary of when Saint Louis IX, a French king known for his charity and waging two crusades against Islamic countries, died while leading the Eighth Crusade.
As monarch of France, Louis IX was known to give meals to the poor and founded multiple hospitals, where he himself would sometimes help tend to the sick.
Louis IX also launched two ultimately unsuccessful crusades against Muslim nations, with him dying of disease in modern day Tunisia about a month after beginning the second one.
“Louis deserves credit for extending justice in civil administration,” explained Franciscan Media. “His regulations for royal officials became the first of a series of reform laws. He replaced trial by battle with a form of examination of witnesses and encouraged the use of written records in court.”
“He is one of the patrons of the Secular Franciscan Order. Louis united France — lords and townsfolk, peasants and priests and knights — by the force of his personality and holiness. For many years the nation was at peace.”
