Blessed Isabel of France
(1225 - 1270)
Bl. Isabel was the sister of St. Louis and the daughter of King Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. In her youth, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other virtues. She refused offers of marriage from several noble suitors in order to continue a life of virginity consecrated to God.
She ministered to the sick and the poor, and after the death of her mother, founded the Franciscan Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Longchamps in Paris. She lived there in austerity, but never became a nun, and declined to become abbess.
She passed away on February 22. When her body was exhumed nine days after, it showed no signs of decay. Many miracles were wrought at her tomb; and Franciscans honor her as a saint.
