On August 11, 1297, Louis IX officially became Saint Louis

On August 11, 1297, Pope Boniface VIII pronounced the canonization of King Louis IX, who had died nearly thirty years earlier, during the reign of his grandson Philip IV the Fair, at a time when the Capetian monarchy reached one of the peaks of its prestige in Europe.

A canonization process opened immediately after the king's death

Immediately after the death of Louis IX, the Church initiated his canonization process, a process that ultimately led to the official recognition of his sanctity by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297. This canonization occurred in a particularly favorable context for the Kingdom of France, then considered the most powerful and prosperous in all of Western Christendom.

For Philip IV the Fair, this elevation of his grandfather to the rank of saint also constituted a powerful tool of dynastic legitimation, lastingly sacralizing the Capetian line in the eyes of his subjects as well as other European powers.

A king known thanks to the stories of Jean de Joinville

The life and virtues of Saint Louis are known to us today primarily through the writings of the chronicler Jean de Joinville, seneschal of Champagne and close companion of the king, who notably accompanied him on the Seventh Crusade. His account, written several decades after the events, largely contributed to shaping the image of the pious and just king that remains associated with Saint Louis to this day.

This canonization makes Louis IX the only king of France to have ever been elevated to the rank of saint by the Catholic Church, a status that would continue to influence the image of the French monarchy for several centuries after his death.