Loading ...
I was digging around a bit today, and felt spontaneously moved to post something in honor of St. Isabella of France. For those of you who don’t know, Isabella was the sister of St. Louis IX, King of France from 1226 to 1270. Though nobly born, she was from childhood extremely pious and modest, and embraced with great zeal the ideals of the Franciscan Order, including their love of poverty. (She did enjoy the advantages of rank in one respect, however… in her youth she specially requested that she be allowed to retain some Franciscan priests to be her personal confessors. Permission was granted by Innocent IV, via papal Bull.)
St. Isabella is particularly interesting in light of a conversation we had here several months ago regarding consecrated virginity. Though never consecrated, she showed a determination to preserve her virginity, with which goal she broke one engagement and then refused to marry Prince Conrad of Germany even at the urging of the pontiff himself! (He later, however, praised her for her steadfastness.) She founded a convent for the Poor Clares, but herself refused to become a nun, though she lived, throughout her adult life, by the Rule observed by the Poor Clares. In fact, being somewhat dissatisfied with the rule normally observed by the Poor Clares at the time, she submitted a modified Rule which was approved by Pope Urban IV in 1263. I could find no explanation for her refusal to formally enter religious life, but perhaps today’s consecrated virgins might take her as an exemplar.
Upon her death in 1270, St. Isabella was buried in the convent church. Her body was exhumed nine days after death and showed no signs of decay, and many miracles were reported by those who prayed at her grave. St Isabella, ora pro nobis!
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
“THOUGH NOBLY BORN, she was from childhood extremely pious and modest…”
Do I detect the spirit of 1789 creeping into the ranks of the Society?
JSP
(for some reason the blog is automatically assigning me the name Erasmus)
Hmm, this is a funny turning of tables. Weren’t you the one who was contending, a few months back, that God blesses his friends with poverty and that riches corrupt? Or maybe that wasn’t you, I forget.
The wrong-name-assigning thing seems to have been happening a lot the last few days. Perhaps I’d better ask Iacobus or Ambrosius to take a look at it… I, unfortunately, am totally inept in that department.
I’m being perfectly consistent. The rich complexity and nuanced shades of my thoughts may be lost on some..
I expect so.
Clara,
Do you think her refusal to join might have been on account of her dissatisfaction with the Poor Clare rule?