Saint Isabel (Elizabeth) of France

The vivacity and great occupation of her mind, along with the little care she took of her body, caused her to fall into an extreme illness. This accident deeply touched the heart of the King, the two Queens, and the entire court; they feared losing a person of such rare merit; public prayers were ordered everywhere for her, and a thousand mouths were opened at the altars to ask God for her recovery and her life. There was at that time, in the village of Nanterre, a person who lived with a reputation for holiness and who was considered to have the gift of prophecy. The Queen Mother, who held her in particular esteem, sent an express messenger to her from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the sick woman was, to beg her to join her prayers on this occasion to those of all the virtuous people of the kingdom, and to let her know what the outcome of her daughter's illness would be. This saintly woman replied that she would not die from it, and that on the contrary, she would soon recover perfect health; but that neither Her Majesty nor the King her son should count her among the living anymore, because, for the rest of her days, she would be dead to the world and would live only for the King of Heaven who had chosen her as His spouse.

The truth of these words was soon seen; for our Saint attached herself to this celestial Spouse: she was, however, sought in marriage by Conrad, King of Jerusalem, son and later successor of Emperor Frederick II. The King and the Queens greatly desired this alliance, which they judged to be very advantageous to the House of France; even the Pope, Innocent IV, de le Pape même, Innocent IV 13th-century pope who testified to the saint's miracles. sired it for the good of all Christendom, as he testified to her by a letter he wrote to her expressly; she nevertheless always refused with constancy, but in a manner so humble and so judicious that His Holiness, having known by her response that her vocation came from God, changed his sentiment and confirmed her in the pious resolution she had taken to live in the state of perpetual virginity, without, however, leaving the world or embracing any congregation or institute.

Saint Isabelle formed her entire conduct upon four great virtues: truth, humility, devotion, and charity. By truth, we do not mean that common virtue which consists in not lying, but a more noble and elevated truth, which consists in a just accord of our sentiments, our morals, and our words with the conceptions, the wills, and the orders of God. Our illustrious princess accustomed herself, from her tenderest youth, to a perfect sincerity in her sentiments, to a great uprightness of soul, and to properly regulating the affections of her heart. Her words corresponded to the purity of her spirit, and they were always so truthful that one never noticed any disguise, flattery, or slander in them. Neither could she suffer falsehood in others; when she was about to give her alms, she would send Sister Agnes, who was her servant at the time, to prevent the poor from lying in her presence.

Her humility was extreme; for she descended into the deepest abysses of that spiritual void where mystical doctors have always placed the throne of this sublime virtue. She persuaded herself that she could never do anything that would be pleasing to God if she did not consider herself less than nothing. The nobility of her birth, which she drew from so many kings, the triumphs of her grandfather, the victories of the king her father, and the majesty of her brother, who was at that time the greatest king i n the universe, the riches of her house, the honors that came son frère, qui était pour lors le plus grand roi de l'univers King of France who visited the relics of Saint Hildevert. pouring from all sides to her feet, the beauty and graces with which she was adorned—all these advantages were but small atoms that were lost in the rays of that great light with which God had illuminated her soul. In a word, she always kept the four principal points of this holy humility, which consist in despising the world, in despising no one, in despising oneself, and finally in despising contempt itself.

Although she had such horror of the world in general, and of all its pomps, grandeurs, and pleasures, there was no one in particular for whom she did not have esteem and love; and, as she envisioned the image of God in everyone, she received with incredible kindness the lowliest persons who approached her. One never heard her speak in an imperious tone; on the contrary, she treated her own servants with a gentleness that delighted them and drew their admiration and respect. If she had any rigor, it was only for herself: while she excused everyone else, she could forgive herself nothing. She persecuted herself as an enemy, and everything the world esteemed in her, she made the object of her disdain, and felt an inner joy when she saw herself dishonored, placing her glory only in the participation in the reproaches of her Savior.

Her devotion was a model upon which the most perfect souls could regulate themselves. She rose long before daybreak to perform her prayers and other spiritual exercises, in which she usually persevered until noon, and in Lent until three o'clock, deferring taking any food until that time. When she came out of her cabinet, one could see in her eyes that she had just been melting into tears at the feet of the crucifix. Her conscience was so tender that she confessed every day, with sobs and surprising compunction. She often took the discipline, but with such rigor that almost all her clothes were stained with her blood. Good books were her most delightful conversations, and the Holy Scripture pleased her more than anything else.

Her love for God and for her neighbor was very ardent and very active; for, not content with an idle charity, she made its effects appear upon the unfortunate, to whom she made continual profusions of her goods. Every day, before her dinner, she had a quantity of poor people enter her room, and, after having given them her largesse, she served them at the table with a kindness and grace that charmed everyone. After dinner, she visited the sick and the afflicted, in order to relieve them in their infirmities or to console them in their sorrows; and all the time that remained to her, she employed in working sometimes for the ornamentation of altars, sometimes for the needs of the poor and the furnishing of hospitals.

King Saint Louis, her brother, paying her a visit one day, asked her for a veil that she had spun with her own hands; but she replied that it was destined for a greater lord than he; and, the same day, she sent it to a poor sick woman whom she visited often. Some ladies havin Le roi saint Louis King of France who visited the relics of Saint Hildevert. g discovered it, bought it back; and it later fell into the hands of the nuns of the Abbey of Saint-Antoine, who were still keeping it, in 1685, as a precious relic, in a silver arm enriched with jewels.

The alms that she gave every day, with such profusion, were not restricted to the kingdom of France alone; her care extended even to the Levant, and she usually maintained ten knights there, to contribute on her part to the French troops who served against the infidels.

Her life, most holy and most innocent, was not exempt from those tribulations with which it sometimes pleases God to test the most righteous souls, who attach themselves to His service with greater purity and perfection. She was attacked by several very long and very violent illnesses; but these pains gave her only joy, because she had no greater satisfaction than to suffer something for her celestial Spouse. What touched her most were the poor successes of Christian arms in the Levant, the oppression of the faithful in the Holy Land, and the captivity of King Saint Louis, the dearest and most lovable of all her brothers. Another blow, which was very painful to her, was the loss of Queen Blanche, her mother, who, after havi ng so well raised the Kin la reine Blanche, sa mère Mother of Saint Isabelle and Saint Louis, regent of France. g her son, and governed with such wisdom and glory his kingdom during his minority and his absence, wished to end such glorious days lying on the ground, on a poor straw mattress, where she received the last Sacraments of the Church with a devotion that moved all those present to tears, and, more than all, her dear Isabelle.

This death finished turning our holy Princess entirely away from the life of the court and the world; as soon as the King, her brother, had returned from his voyage overseas, she resolved to withdraw completely. She deliberated whether she should build a monastery of nuns, to spend the rest of her days there, or only a hospital, to occupy herself there with the assistance of the poor and the sick. Doctor Emery, Chancellor of the University of Paris and her director, whom she consulted on this matter, advised her to build a convent instead. She followed this advice and resolved to found a house of daughters of the Order of Saint Francis. A design of this importance could not be executed without her communicating it to the King, her brother, and having his consent. She chose the time when he was most at rest in his cabinet: there, throwing herself at his feet, according to her custom, she begged him to agree to her undertaking. The holy King, who was full of piety toward God and tenderness for his sister, after having her rise and sit beside him, not only gave her his agreement but also promised to contribute as much as possible to such a pious design.

The Princess thanked him very humbly for this grace, and, after having recommended her affair to God, she began to set her hand to the work. Her first application was to have statutes drawn up in conformity with the Rule of Saint Clare, which she wished to give to her nuns. Six of the most learned and pious of the Order of Saint Francis took this care, namely: Saint Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church and later Cardinal; Brother Eudes Rigault, later Archbishop of Rouen; Brother Guillaume Millençonne; Brother Geoffroy Marsais and Brother Guillaume Archambault; and they worked on it with as much care as if it had been a question of founding a great monarchy.

As soon as they had drawn up the form of this Rule, the Saint sent it to Pope Alexander IV who confirmed it: but, shortly after, these new constitutions were found to be so austere and so difficult in their practice that they seemed made more to overwhelm nature than to mortify it. King Saint Louis, who had pity on these poor nuns, begged Pope Urban IV to bring some softening to it. The Pope did so when the Cardinal of Saint Cecilia had regulated the articles; and it is from there that the nuns, who follow this wisely mitigated Rule, are called Urbanists.

Finally, Saint Isabelle chose, for the residence of her daughters, the solitude of Longchamps, two leagues from Paris, on the bank of the Seine, below the Bois de Boulogne, and at the same place where the Dryads had been worshipped by the superstition of antiquity. She placed there celestial souls who filled the whole country with blessings. Saint Louis, accompanied by the Queen his spouse and the Dauphin, follo wed by the Saint Louis King of France who visited the relics of Saint Hildevert. princes, the lords of his court and a great concourse of people, had the cross planted there by the bishop of the diocese, and himself laid the first stone. This edifice, by means of thirty thousand livres (it was in that time a considerable sum), advanced so rapidly that in a short time one saw there an accomplished monastery. But what can make known to everyone that this enterprise was from heaven, the day when the work was begun, three doves, of an admirable whiteness and all radiant with light, appeared in the air above those present, and remained for a long time in the same place, as if they had wished to take part. The Queen, taking the Princess by the hand, said to her: "Courage, my sister; the whole august Trinity is involving itself in our affairs." The eve of the feast of Saint John the Baptist in the year 1260, Saint Louis came for the second time, with great pomp, into this monastery, and installed the nuns there, under the guidance of his sister, Isabelle of France.

The holy Foundress never wanted her abbey to bear any title other than that of the Humility of Our Lady, and, as Sister Agnes, her historian, asked her the reason for it, she l'Humilité de Notre-Dame Monastery founded by Isabella of France near Paris. answered her that she found no name more beautiful nor more favorable to the honor of the holy Virgin than that one, and that she was astonished that, among so many congregations, there was none yet that was honored with this title. Saint Louis, following the permission that the Pope had given him for it, and which was even inserted in the Rule, entered the monastery with a small number of chosen people; and, having sat in the chapter on a bench, in the midst of all the nuns, he himself gave them a very beautiful and very pressing exhortation on their state and on the perfection of the spiritual life: for which Sister Isabelle of France thanked him very humbly, calling him our very reverend and holy father, My Lord the King.

The Saint did not make a profession of religious life; although she was within the enclosure of this abbey of Longchamps, she nevertheless always remained in a separate building and in secular habit. Her conduct in this was very wise and very judicious: as she was subject to great infirmities, she had reason to fear that her weakness might oblige her to seek dispensations that would not have been a sufficiently great example for the community; for the Rule, with all the improvements that Pope Urban IV had brought to it, remained very austere; those who enjoyed the best health could only observe it with great efforts of virtue and courage. Furthermore, had she become a nun, she could never have avoided being elected abbess and superior of the house, since she was its founder and the most capable of governing it: a thing her humility made her fear above all else. Finally, the temporal good of her house required that she act in this way, because, by retaining her rank and a portion of her goods, she was better able to support it with her credit, protect it with her authority, and assist it with her alms. Her resolution was approved by the most enlightened persons, who attributed to great wisdom what others might perhaps have taken for a lack of generosity and fervor. However, Isabelle did not fail to live like the most austere nun of Longchamps. She was dressed in simple camlet; her veil and handkerchiefs were without lace; she fasted incessantly, and very often gave herself the discipline with excess; she kept very few people around her, served herself in all her needs, kept a rigorous silence, attended the divine offices most often, spent the better part of the day and night in prayer, served the poor as was her custom and gave them great largesse, humbled herself to the feet of her servants and always asked their pardon on her knees before going to receive communion; finally, she carried all her nuns in her heart and took particular care of their spiritual advancement, as well as the temporal affairs of the house. She spent more than ten years in this state, always purifying her spirit more and more through an intellectual life, until, approaching the Promised Land, that is to say the heavenly Jerusalem, she entered, like another Moses, into a cloud of glory, where she had such sweet and familiar conversations with God that she spent several nights in contemplation without being able to lie down. Sister Agnes, who was informed of this, went to her room to beg her to take some rest; but she found her in a rapture that deprived her of the use of her senses and all natural faculties, making her face more rosy than newly opened roses and all shining with a celestial light. Her confessor and her chaplain, who also entered her room for the same reason, were witnesses to the same thing, and could not doubt that this excellent spouse of Jesus Christ was then enjoying VIES DES SAINTS. — TOME X. that union of love which Scripture calls the kiss of the Lord, and which is the effect of spiritual marriage. When she had returned from her ecstasy, she pronounced these beautiful words several times: In soli honor et gloria: "May honor and glory be to God alone." Some time later, she had a distinct revelation of the day of her passing. She then wrote to Pope Clement IV, to beg him to give her his blessing before she departed from this world, and also to allow the princesses of France, her relatives, to attend her funeral and visit her sepulcher after her death: which His Holiness granted her by express Bull of the year 1268. Having then fallen ill, she received the holy Viaticum with devotion and with a fervor that touched the heart of the entire assembly; then, turning toward the nuns, to whom she had already asked pardon with very profound humility, she said these few words: "Farewell, my dear sisters; remember, in your prayers, your poor Isabelle who has always loved you so tenderly, and who will never forget you before God." Immediately after, she had herself laid on a straw mattress, where she received the sacrament of Extreme Unction. Finally, all ablaze with the flames of divine love, and breathing only for the embraces of her Beloved, she rendered her spirit into His hands, to be eternally crowned with glory: which happened on February 22 of the year 1270. Her daughters sufficiently testified to the pain they felt at this loss by the torrents of tears they shed. But God, who did not wish to leave them without consolation, made them hear several times, in the middle of the air, from the mouths of angels, these words of Psalm LXXV: In pace factus est locus ejus, which signified that she was enjoying that peace which is born of the happy possession of the sovereign good.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Isabelle's body, clothed in the habit of Saint Clare, was buried in the monastery she had founded, as she herself had ordered. Her memory has remained in blessing throughout all the following centuries. Pope Leo X had an inqui Le pape Léon X Pope who authorized the office of Saint Ozanne. ry made into her miracles, and sixty-three were verified in the ordinary forms; they are reported by the authors of her life. This Pope declared her Blessed by a Bull in the year 1521, and gave permission to the nuns of Longchamp to celebrate her office on August 31, which is within the octave of Saint Louis, even though she died on February 22. Since that time, Pope Urban VIII, at the request of Marie-Élisabeth Mortier, abbess of this royal house, permitted, by an apostolic Indult, the exhumation of her sacred remains, which had rested there for nearly four hundred years, and to place them in a reliquary. This ceremony was performed with great pomp on June 4, 1637, by Jean-François de Goudy, first Archbishop of Paris, under the reign of Louis the Just, great-grandnephew of this great Saint, as a direct descendant of Saint Louis, her brother.

Formerly, in the famous house of Longchamp, called the *Humility of Our Lady*, were kept, along with her bones, her hair and her dress, which was of simple wool fabric and brown in color, with her gold rings, on one of which were engraved these words: *Ave, gratia plena*, a mark of her devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Many more miracles occurred at her tomb since her beatification; several sick people were healed by her merits, and many people burdened with affliction received relief and consolation there in their sorrows. Her house was maintained for a long time in the strict observance of its Rule. In 1695, it still continued to spread the good odor of Jesus Christ, not only in the nearest places, but also in the city of Paris; one went to admire in these holy nuns the ancient innocence and simplicity of their first Institute.

At the Revolution, the monastery of Longchamp was entirely destroyed, and the place it occupied became a farm. The Church of Saint-Louis-en-l'Île, in Paris, possesses a portion of the relics of Saint Isabelle, which are exposed each year, on the day of the feast of the holy ki L'Église de Saint-Louis-en-l'Île Parisian church housing relics of the saint. ng, for the veneration of the faithful.

Many authors have given us her life; among others Rouillard, lawyer at the parliament, and the Rev. Fr. Caussin, of the Society of Jesus. The Annals of the Order of Saint Francis also speak of her very amply. The Rev. Fr. Arles du Monstier mentions her in his martyrology of the same Order, and in his Collection. Du Saussay makes a very beautiful eulogy of her in his martyrology of the Saints of France.