Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.
It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.
The Feast Day of St. Louis
The Feast Day of St. Louis is a Christian religious celebration of the life of King Louis IX of France, the only French monarch ever canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. The U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri is named after him, as is the San Luis providence in Argentina, San Luis Potosi in Mexico, São Luís, Maranhão in Brazil, and numerous places in France itself, including Île Saint-Louis, an island in the river Seine, Paris.
Who is St. Louis, otherwise known as Louis IX, King of France?
Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly revered as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VIII, he was crowned in Reims at the age of 12. His mother, Blanche of Castile, effectively ruled the kingdom as regent until he came of age and continued to serve as his trusted adviser until her death. During his formative years, Blanche successfully confronted rebellious vassals and championed the Capetian cause in the Albigensian Crusade, which had been ongoing for the past two decades.
As an adult, Louis IX grappled with persistent conflicts involving some of the most influential nobles in his kingdom, including Hugh X of Lusignan and Peter of Dreux. Concurrently, England's Henry III sought to reclaim the Angevin continental holdings, only to be decisively defeated at the Battle of Taillebourg. Louis expanded his territory by annexing several provinces, including parts of Aquitaine, Maine, and Provence. Keeping a promise he made while praying for recovery from a grave illness, Louis led the ill-fated Seventh and Eighth Crusades against the Muslim dynasties that controlled North Africa, Egypt, and the Holy Land. He was captured and ransomed during the Seventh Crusade, and later succumbed to dysentery during the Eighth Crusade. His son, Philip III, succeeded him.
Louis instigated significant reforms in the French legal system, creating a royal justice mechanism that allowed petitioners to appeal judgements directly to the monarch. He abolished trials by ordeal, endeavored to terminate private wars, and incorporated the presumption of innocence into criminal proceedings. To implement his new legal framework, he established the offices of provosts and bailiffs. Louis IX's reign is often marked as an economic and political zenith for medieval France, and he held immense respect throughout Christendom. His reputation as a fair and judicious ruler led to his being solicited to mediate disputes beyond his own kingdom.
Louis' admirers through the centuries have celebrated him as the quintessential Christian monarch. His skill as a knight and engaging manner with the public contributed to his popularity, although he was occasionally criticized as being overly pious, earning the moniker of a "monk king". Louis was a staunch Christian and rigorously enforced Catholic orthodoxy. He enacted harsh laws against blasphemy and launched actions against France's Jewish population, including ordering them to wear a yellow badge of shame, as well as the notorious burning of the Talmud following the Disputation of Paris. Louis IX holds the distinction of being the sole canonized king of France.
Religion
The perception of Louis IX by his contemporaries as the exemplary Christian prince was reinforced by his religious zeal. Louis was an extremely devout Catholic, and he built the Sainte-Chapelle ("Holy Chapel"), located within the royal palace complex (now the Paris Hall of Justice), on the Île de la Cité in the centre of Paris. The Sainte Chapelle, a prime example of the Rayonnant style of Gothic architecture, was erected as a shrine for the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross, precious relics of the Passion of Christ. He acquired these in 1239–41 from Emperor Baldwin II of the Latin Empire of Constantinople by agreeing to pay off Baldwin's debt to the Venetian merchant Niccolo Quirino, for which Baldwin had pledged the Crown of Thorns as collateral. Louis IX paid the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres to clear the debt.
In 1230, the King forbade all forms of usury, defined at the time as any taking of interest and therefore covering most banking activities. Louis used these anti-usury laws to extract funds from Jewish and Lombard moneylenders, with the hopes that it would help pay for a future crusade. Louis also oversaw the Disputation of Paris in 1240, in which Paris's Jewish leaders were imprisoned and forced to admit to anti-Christian passages in the Talmud, the major source of Jewish commentaries on the Bible and religious law. As a result of the disputation, Pope Gregory IX declared that all copies of the Talmud should be seized and destroyed. In 1242, Louis ordered the burning of 12,000 Talmudim, along with other important Jewish books and scripture. The edict against the Talmud was eventually overturned by Gregory IX's successor, Innocent IV.
Louis also expanded the scope of the Inquisition in France. He set the punishment for blasphemy to mutilation of the tongue and lips. The area most affected by this expansion was southern France, where the Cathar sect had been strongest. The rate of confiscation of property from the Cathars and others reached its highest levels in the years before his first crusade and slowed upon his return to France in 1254.
In 1250, Louis headed a crusade to Egypt and was taken prisoner. During his captivity, he recited the Divine Office every day. After his release against ransom, he visited the Holy Land before returning to France. In these deeds, Louis IX tried to fulfill what he considered the duty of France as "the eldest daughter of the Church" (la fille aînée de l'Église), a tradition of protector of the Church going back to the Franks and Charlemagne, who had been crowned by Pope Leo III in Rome in 800. The kings of France were known in the Church by the title "most Christian king" (Rex Christianissimus).
Louis founded many hospitals and houses: the House of the Filles-Dieu for reformed prostitutes; the Quinze-Vingt for 300 blind men (1254), and hospitals at Pontoise, Vernon, and Compiégne.
St. Louis installed a house of the Trinitarian Order at Fontainebleau, his chateau and estate near Paris. He chose Trinitarians as his chaplains and was accompanied by them on his crusades. In his spiritual testament he wrote, "My dearest son, you should permit yourself to be tormented by every kind of martyrdom before you would allow yourself to commit a mortal sin."
Louis authored and sent the Enseignements, or teachings, to his son Philip III. The letter outlined how Philip should follow the example of Jesus Christ in order to be a moral leader. The letter is estimated to have been written in 1267, three years before Louis's death.
What does one eat for the Feast Day celebration of St. Louis?
If you search only for feast day food associated with St. Louis, you often are directed to the following. Is this an association with the man or with the city? For our purposes, it works either way:
St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake
via tasteofhome.com
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1-3/4 cups sugar
- 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
- 2 large eggs, beaten, room temperature
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
Directions
Step 1: Mix the Base of the Butter Cake
Start making your St. Louis gooey butter cake by combining the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Give them a quick whisk to combine.
In another bowl, mix together the melted butter, egg and vanilla. You want your butter melted but not hot. Hot butter will cook your egg. Instead, melt the butter and let it cool a bit before starting this cake. And since butter is the star of the show here, you might want to opt for a really delicious butter, like Amish butter or Kerrygold Irish butter.
Next, add the butter mix into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Don't overwork this dough or it'll lose its tender quality.
Step 2: Press Crust into the Pan
Next, transfer your butter cake mixture into a greased 13×9 pan. Press the mix into the bottom of the pan so it forms a type of crust—much the same as you would do when making lemon bars.
To get a really even base, use a flat-bottomed cup to press down the dough rather than your hands.
Step 3: Mix Cream Cheese Topping
For the cream cheese topping, beat together the softened cream cheese and eggs until smooth. Then add in the confectioners' sugar and mix to combine. For a super-smooth batter, sift the confectioners' sugar.
Then pour the filling over the base. Use a spatula to spread it evenly across the crust.
Step 4: Bake
Bake the gooey butter cake for 40 to 45 minutes at 325ºF. The secret to getting that perfectly gooey gooey butter cake is to bake it until the edges begin to brown and the filling is nearly set, much the way you'd bake up fudgy brownies or a cheesecake.
Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 45 to 60 minutes before dusting with confectioners' sugar and digging in.
What is a prayer you might say for the Feast Day of St. Louis?
As you might expect, for such a revered monarch and saint, there is a lot of prayer associated with him. I'll direct you to the following via credostlouis.org:
Novena to Saint Louis IX, King of France
Repeat the following Novena prayers every day for 9 consecutive days.
O holy King St. Louis,
worthy son of our Holy Father St. Francis
and patron of the Third Order,
intercede for me with our Heavenly Father.
Obtain for me the grace to follow in thy footsteps,
to be always a dutiful child of St. Francis,
and to observe exactly, all the days of my life,
that holy rule which thou loved so ardently and kept so faithfully.
Be my guide and protector,
so that I may never stray from the path of virtue
but increase daily in holiness and perfection,
and finally merit to be numbered among the chosen ones
of our Seraphic Father in Heaven.
Amen.
O God, Who didst exalt blessed Louis Thy Confessor
from an earthly realm to the glory of Thy Heavenly kingdom:
grant, we pray Thee,
that by his merits and intercession
we may be made heirs of the King of Kings,
Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever.
Amen.
Litany of Saint Louis of France.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of heaven,
have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost,
have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
have mercy on us.
Holy Mary,
pray for us.
Holy Mother of God,
pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins,
pray for us.
Saint Louis of France,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, scion of devout parents,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, constant protector of the children of God,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, steadfast teacher of piety,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, true model of Christian virtue,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, faithful confessor of the living Christ,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, kingly bearer of humiliations,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, staunch defender of the glorified Christ,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, true martyr of the flesh by mortification,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, detester of worldly pride and honor,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, saviour of souls,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, ardent lover of God,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, kind friend of enemies,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, rapt in prayer to God,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, hope of sinners,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, giver of gifts,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, founder of charitable institutions for the afflicted,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, generous giver of alms,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, lavish dispenser of riches,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, guard of the holy places of pilgrimage,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, detester of immoderate people,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, protector of widows and orphans,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, defender of the sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, victor over the Saracens,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, protector of those in pagan slavery,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, converter of unbelievers to the Christian faith,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, visitor of hospitals and dispenser of favors to the infirm,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, healer of the sick,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, intercessor and patron of the French King,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, from whom those who flee to thee obtain the infallible help of God,
pray for us.
Saint Louis, at whose request divers diseases are miraculously cured,
pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Christ hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…
V. Pray for us, Saint Louis:
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.
O Lord, King of kings, Jesus Christ,
Who didst love Saint Louis and didst lead him into the heavenly Kingdom:
grant that by his intercession and good works,
we may participate in his glory for all eternity.
Who livest and reignest world without end.
Amen.
When is the Feast Day of St. Louis celebrated?
The Feast Day of St. Louis is celebrated on 25 August.
I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful day!
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