BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Wednesday, August 25, 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Fourth from left, portrait by El Greco, Ca. 1600; 6th from left, 16th century portrait of Louis feeding the poor; next to it a medieval illumination depicting the meeting in Cluny between Pope Innocent IV and Louis.
ST. LOUIS IX OF FRANCE (b France 1226, d Tunis 1270), King, Crusader, Confessor
Descended from the Capetian dynasty, he became king at age 12, and his mother Blanche aced as regent until he was 19, when he married Marguerite of Provence with whom he would have 11 children, one of whom would found the Bourbon dynasty. He took his coronation oath seriously to 'behave as God's anointed' and became the embodiment of the ideal Christian monarch. He was primus inter pares among the monarchs of Europe because France at the time was the largest and wealthiest of the European nations. He brought many reforms to civil administration, particularly in the justice system, and building on the earlier work of his mother, he successfully fought down the Albigensian (Cathar) heresy. But in his efforts to defend the faith, he also expelled the Jews and strengthened the Inquisition in France. He was devoted to his people, keeping lists of the needy to bring them regular aid, founding hospitals, visiting the sick, caring for lepers, and bringing together all classes of people by his personality and holiness. He was a patron of arts and culture, under whom Gothic architecture and arts flourished, and Paris reinforced its medieval reputation as center and arbiter. He built the famous Sainte Chapelle in Paris as his private chapel. As a Christian king, he took part in the Seventh and Eighth Crusades. The first time, he conquered the Egyptian city of Damietta, but ended up being captured by the Mameluke army and had to be ransomed by the Knights Templar. He spent the next four years in the Holy Land, using his wealth to help the Crusaders and build defences in Acre, Jaffa and Haifa. More than 20 years later, in 1570, he would take part in the Eighth Crusade, but he died unexpectedly of disease (probably dysentery) in Tunis. He was canonized in 1297, just 24 years after his death. He is the only French king to have been canonized.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/082510.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR. Page 1 news: New signs of sputtering US recovery drives down Asian stock markets; Pakistan president says it will take years for the country to recover from the effects of the current floods, which has affected one-third of the nation's agriculture, claimed 150,000 dead and left at least 8 million homeless; slow work in untangling the mammoth 100-km long traffic jam that began August 14 on the main route from Beijing to Tibet, because the only alternative route is too narrow to accommodate the volume. Inside, an essay of how Orthodox imagery preaches and reinforces the faith by appealing to the 'eyes of the heart'; a story from the monastery of Patmos, built on teh site where John is believed to have written the Apocalypse; a story on what is being called 'the Sistine Chapel of prehistoric African art', remarkably preserved cave art dating to 4000-8000 B.C. in a cave in Gilf Kebir in the area where Egypt, Libya and Sudan adjoin each other; and a feature on Swiss Guards choosing to spend their vacation this year by visiting the Bavarian places associated with Joseph Ratzinger.


THE POPE'S DAY

General Audience - Another abbreviated catechesis from Castel Gandolfo, where the Pope chose to speak
about St. Augustine and his mother St. Monica whose feast days are on August 26 and 25, respectively.
He also expressed the hope that the international community may do all it can to re-establish the rule
of law and respect for human rights in civil war-torn Somalia. He then addressed the overflow crowd on
the town square from the external balcony of the Apostolic Palace.