Isabelle de France (1225-1270)

See also: Isabelle de France

Happy Isabelle de France (1225 - 1270) is the girl of the king de France Louis VIII '' the Lion '' and of Blanche of Castille. She died without alliance nor posterity, founder of the monastery of the Clarisses town planners of Longchamp close to Paris.

Younger sister by saint Louis IX, Isabelle accepted, like her brother, a very strong Christian education: as of its more young age it was pointed out by its piety and its temperance.

For political reasons, his/her father wanted to marry it with the count Hugues of the Walk which preferred to marry Yolande, the girl of the count de Bretagne. The pope Innocent IV wished to see it marrying the son of Frederic II of Hohenstaufen, emperor of the Saint Worsens. This prince Conrad was in title but not in fact, king de Jérusalem, and was to inherit the Empire. Isabelle refused this party and made known with her family and the Pope whom she wished to keep virginity. The Pope included/understood his intention, and granted to him, by bubble (May 26th 1254) the authorization to put itself under the spiritual supervision of monk franciscains.

One year later, she undertook the construction of a Monastère, in the forest of Rouvray (the wood of Boulogne), near to Paris, on a ground conceded by her brother, the king Louis IX. This one, very attached to his/her sister, had authorized it to devote a sum of thirty thousand books, that is to say the sum which it would have had like dowry, for the construction of the monastery. The Monastère of Longchamp was completed in 1259, and accommodated the first clarisses (obedience of Saint-Damien), come from the monastery of Rheims, the June 23rd 1260. While taking as a starting point the Rule written by Claire of Sitted, it had composed itself a rule, a little less severe, which was approved by Alexandre IV (February 2nd 1259). Holy Bonaventure, general Minister of the Franciscain S and other brothers had advised it; he preached several times at Longchamp and wrote a treaty of spiritual life dedicated to Isabelle: of Sophisticated vitae AD sorores (perfect life, for the sisters). The monastery was devoted to the humility of the Happy Virgin Mary .

From 1260, Isabelle came to move into a small house, built for it in the enclosure of the monastery, to share the life and the prayer of the sisters, but it never made religious Profession. In 1263, it obtained from the pope Urbain IV, a rehandling of the Rule. This last drafting was adopted by several monasteries, in France and Italy (clarisses town planners).

Isabelle died the February 23rd 1270 and was buried in the church of the monastery. After the death of Louis saint (in Tunis, the same year), Charles of Anjou, brother of the king and Isabelle, asked a lady's companion of Isabelle to write his life, for his canonization. Agnes d' Harcourt published this account hagiographic, towards 1280, but Isabelle was béatifiée only in 1521, by the pope Leon X (bubble Piis omnium ).

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