St Louis King IX

Louis was born into a royal family; his father was King Louis VIII and his mother was Queen Blanche. His mother taught him to love God with his whole life, from the time that he was little and he grew up with a deep faith. His father died when Louis was only 12 years old and so Louis became King. Because he was so young his mother ruled France until Louis was old enough to take over; he began ruling as King when he was 21 years old. He married a good woman who became Queen Margaret and together they had 11 children. As King, Louis went on two battles to help Christians in other lands be able to travel to holy places in and around Jerusalem, these battles were called The Crusades. In one of these crusades, he was taken as a prisoner by the Egyptians. He was later released when France gave the Egyptians money and the land that the Egyptians wanted. Also on a crusade, he believed that he found the crown of thorns that Jesus wore and he brought it back to France and built a special church for it, where it can still be seen today. King Louis built many churches in France to help people to go to church more and to help those in need. On his second crusade he got sick with typhoid fever and he died before ever fighting his battle. He was happy to die and to be going to God’s house.