St. Louis, King of France

There are many wonderful Catholic parishes in the City of Austin and one of the most important is St. Louis, King of France, on Burnet Road. The parish is well known for excellent liturgy, exceptional pastoral care of the people and a very strong social concerns ministry. With all of these things, St. Louis is living up to the faith and strength of its patron, St. Louis, King of France.

The king lived from 1214 to 1270 and had an extremely interesting reign, although I think the most interesting part of it is that he was both a king and a saint. We have not had too many of those in the last 2,000 years. On the other hand, we haven’t had a president canonized as yet, although, in my opinion, Abraham Lincoln merits the title.

Given the toughness of the age, Louis was an exceptional king. He was vitally concerned about justice, care of the poor, the elimination of internal strife among the people of France and, in every other way, showed himself to be a holy and just person. As a product of his age, he was very much committed to the Crusades and his desire to bring the land made holy by Jesus’ life back under the control of the Christians. He was the leader of the 9th Crusade, which was not all that successful, and he would be captured and imprisoned during that episode in his life.

At any rate, he is a great name in Church history and gives the title, once again, to an extraordinary Austin parish.

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