ABSTRACT
In the year 1270 Louis IX, King of France since 1226, died on crusade outside the walls of Tunis as he besieged the Muslim city in an eort to persuade its emir, al-Mustansir, to convert to Christianity.2 Twenty-seven years later, in August of 1297, Pope Boniface VIII solemnly canonized Louis IX as a saint of the church, praising him in a number of canonization-related documents for his defense of the faith and his eorts against the Muslim indel. Louis’ devotion to crusading was a principal feature of the numerous texts written in these years in support of his canonization and in the testimony oered during the canonization inquiry that was held in 1282 and 1283 at St. Denis, and historians of sainthood have routinely said that Louis’ sanctity was largely
1 For the lives of Louis written by Georey of Beaulieu, William of Chartres, Yves of Saint Denis (listed as “the Anonymous of Saint Denis”), and William of Nangis, I cite the editions in vols. 20 and 22 of Martin Bouquet, ed., Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, 24 vols. (Paris: 1738; reprint, Gregg: Famborough: 1967) – hereaer RHGF. I cite H.-F. Delaborde’s more reliable edition of William of Saint-Pathus’ life of Saint Louis (Guillaume of Saint-Pathus, Vie de Saint Louis, ed. H. François Delaborde, Collection de textes pour servir à l’étude et à l’enseignement de l’histoire 27 (Paris, 1899)), though this can also be consulted in RHGF, v. 20, 58-121. Boniface’s bull of canonization is found in RHGF, v. 23, 154-160. I quote Joinville from R. Hague’s translation: John of Joinville, e Life of St. Louis, trans. René Hague from the text edited by Natalis de Wailly (New York, 1955). I refer to two other texts. e rst is the liturgical vita that accompanied celebration of Louis’ feast day. It can be found at RHGF, v. 23, 161-167. I also cite an unpublished vita for Louis, Gloriosissimi Regis, that I am currently editing for publication. It is cited here by chapter number (of which there are twelve in total). I am grateful to Sean Field, Christopher MacEvitt, and Caroline Smith for reading earlier versions of this piece, to omas Madden for organizing the conference on the Crusades and for the opportunity to participate in it, and nally to William Chester Jordan for his useful comments at the conference itself.
