How St Louis of France Would Feed the Poor Before He Ate

St Louis, whose Feast is today, was the ideal King, just, wise, and a devout Christian. He said,  “I think more of the place where I was baptised than of Reims Cathedral, where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom. This last I shall lose at death but the other will be my passport to an everlasting glory.”

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

As King of France, St. Louis would personally feed the poor, ensuring everyone else had food before he began eating.

St. Louis is often referred to as the "model Christian monarch," and part of the reason for this recognition was his extraordinary charity to the poor. He not only instructed others to feed the poor, but he fed them with his own hands.

A 19th-century biography, St. Louis, King of France, explains how he had an affection for the poor starting in his youth:

From his very childhood the king took pity on the poor and afflicted and the custom was that wherever the king went, a hundred and twenty poor persons should every day have an abundant meal in his house, of bread wine and meat or fish.

Medieval kings were not typically as generous as St. Louis, as many wanted to hoard what they possessed and gave little to the poorest of their kingdom.

Feeding the poor before he ate

This affection for the poor led him to take matters into his own hands, ensuring that everyone was fed, before he began eating:

In Lent and Advent the number of the poor was increased, and several times it happened that the king waited upon them and placed food before them and carved for them and gave them money with his own hand when they went away. Particularly, at the great vigils of solemn festivals, he waited upon the poor, as above related, before he himself eat or drank anything.

St. Louis even invited the poor to dine at his own table, eating the same food that he ate.

Besides all that, he had every day to dine and sup with him, old men and cripples, to whom he gave of the same dishes that be himself partook of, and when they had eaten, they carried away a certain sum in money.

All leaders can be inspired by this saintly king, who not only told people to feed the poor, but fed them himself, accompanying them in any way possible.

His example is a stirring call to "practice what you preach," and to live-out your Catholic faith, even in the public sphere.