Statue d'Isabelle de France sous le porche de Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois,
Bienheureuse Isabelle de France
Née à Paris en 1225, elle était la sœur du roi saint Louis. Atirée depuis toujours par les réalités célestes et vivant de la prière et de la charité, Isabelle resta à la cour, tenant son rang, tant que vivait sa mère Blanche de Castille. Elle réussit à éviter le mariage et se retira, dès qu’il lui fut possible, dans une petite maison à l’ombre du couvent de Longchamp qu’elle avait bâti pour les clarisses et consacré à l’Humilité de Notre-Dame. Sans prononcer de vœux, elle vécut toute sa vie dans cette retraite et mourut en 1270.
Bienheureuse Isabelle de France
Religieuse clarisse, sœur de Saint Louis (+ 1270)
Ce n'est pas une princesse de légende. Nous avons d'elle le portrait vivant qu'a écrit l'une de ses dames d'honneur, Agnès d'Harcourt, qui deviendra par la suite abbesse de Longchamp. Dès son plus jeune âge, cette sœur du roi saint Louis fut attirée par les choses célestes. Elle était gracieuse et belle en sa jeunesse, mais de santé chétive. Près de sa mère, elle tint son rang au palais royal, mais passait beaucoup de temps avec les pauvres. Elle réussit à ne point se laisser marier à Conrad, le fils de l'empereur Frédéric II, malgré les instances du Pape. Après la mort de Blanche de Castille elle résolut de vivre à l'écart du monde et passa le reste de sa vie dans une petite maisonnette, près du couvent de Longchamp qu'elle avait bâti à Paris pour les clarisses et qu'elle consacra à "l'Humilité de Notre-Dame." Elle y mena une vie d'austérité et de prière, sans prononcer pour autant des vœux de religion.
Fêtée au propre de France le 22 février et que Paris fête le 24 février...
La bienheureuse Isabelle (1225-1270), sœur de saint Louis, est née à Paris de Louis VIII et de Blanche de Castille. Dès son plus jeune âge, elle fut attirée par les choses célestes. Près de sa mère, elle tint son rang au palais royal, mais passait beaucoup de temps avec les pauvres... (saints diocésains - diocèse de Nanterre)
Sœur du roi saint Louis, elle resta à la cour tant que vécut sa mère Blanche de Castille. Elle y tint son rang avec simplicité mais aussi avec dignité. Elle s'occupait surtout des pauvres, des malades et des lépreux. Puis elle fonda le monastère des religieuses clarisses "Notre-Dame de l'humilité", sur la plaine de Longchamp, grâce à l'appui royal. Saint Bonaventure rédigea la règle de ces moniales. Isabelle resta simple laïque, habitant à côté du monastère dans la piété, l'austérité et la prière.
À Longchamp aux environs de Paris, en 1270, la bienheureuse Isabelle, vierge. Sœur du roi saint Louis, elle refusa des noces princières, méprisa les délices du monde et fonda un couvent de Sœurs Mineures, avec lesquelles elle vécut pour Dieu dans l’humilité et la pauvreté.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/684/Bienheureuse-Isabelle-de-France.html
Isabelle était soeur du roi saint Louis. On la connaît par un portrait plein de vie laissé par l'une de ses dames d'honneur Agnès d'Harcourt. Gracieuse et belle, la jeune princesse était de santé fragile mais elle tenait son rang avec vaillance au Palais, près de sa mère Blanche de Castille, la reine intrépide. Très tôt, on remarque son attrait pour la prière, son amour du silence et le souci du service des pauvres. Isabelle de France refuse à vingt ans, malgré l'insistance du Pape, d'épouser le prince Conrad, fils de l'empereur Frédéric II. Sur le conseil de saint Bonaventure et avec l'aide de son frère le jeune roi Louis IX, elle établit un monastère à Longchamp pour des soeurs Clarisses. Elle quittera le palais royal pour vivre dans une modeste maison tout près de ce couvent.
Tout comme Elisabeth, Isabelle vient de l'hébreu "El-Yah-Beth" qui signifie "la maison de Dieu". De nombreuses saintes ont sanctifié ce nom : depuis Élisabeth, mère de Jean-Baptiste, à Élisabeth de Hongrie. On fête également le 4 juillet sainte Isabelle du Portugual.
Rédacteur : Frère Bernard Pineau, OP
SOURCE : http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Saints/Isabelle-de-France
22 février : Bienheureuse
Isabelle de France
Clarisse, sœur de Saint Louis, roi de France, Isabelle fut comme lui pleine d'amour pour le Christ auquel elle se consacra entièrement : elle fut fondatrice et abbesse du monastère de Longchamp, détruit par la satanée révolution. Elle est fêtée au propre de la France le 22 février (Archidiocèse de Paris = 24 février) - « Neige à la Sainte Isabelle, fait la fleur plus belle » :
Isabelle, fille du roi de France Louis VIII et de Blanche de Castille, est née en mars 1225. Dès son plus jeune âge, cette sœur du roi Saint Louis fut attirée par les choses célestes. Elle était gracieuse et belle en sa jeunesse, mais de santé chétive. Près de sa mère, elle tint son rang au palais royal avec simplicité mais aussi avec dignité car elle passait beaucoup de temps avec les pauvres, les malades et les lépreux. Elle réussit à ne point se laisser marier à Conrad IV, le fils de l'empereur Frédéric II du Saint Empire, malgré les instances du Pape Innocent IV. Après la mort de Blanche de Castille, elle résolut de vivre à l'écart du monde et passa le reste de sa vie dans l’austérité et la prière, dans une petite maisonnette, près de l’abbaye de Longchamp qu'elle a fait bâtir à Paris pour les Clarisses et qu'elle consacra à « l'Humilité de Notre-Dame ». La première pierre de cette abbaye fut posée le 10 juin 1256 par Saint Louis et le couvent fut achevé en 1259. Par la bulle du 12 février 1259, le pape Alexandre IV autorise les religieuses à occuper l'abbaye « Abbatissa sosorum minorissarum humilitatis nostrae Dominae de Longo-Campo », ce qu'elles font le 23 juin 1260, suivies, trois ans plus tard, par Isabelle de France. Saint Bonaventure rédigea la règle pour ces moniales. Par humilité, Isabelle ne prononce pas ses vœux, s'occupe de la cuisine, va chercher l'eau à la Seine et dort sur de la paille. Elle meurt le 22 février 1270, un mois avant ses 45 ans.
Dans le contexte de la canonisation en cours du roi Louis IX, Charles d'Anjou commande à Agnès d'Harcourt, alors abbesse de Longchamp, une Vie d'Isabelle de France. Le texte est rédigé en prose et en langue vernaculaire vraisemblablement entre 1279 et 1281. La vie et les miracles d'Isabelle constituent un nouvel argumentaire en faveur de la sainteté dynastique capétienne. La princesse est présentée comme une vierge savante. Sa vie emprunte à la fois à un modèle féminin de sainteté proche de Claire d'Assise, et à un modèle royal et masculin, celui de Saint Louis. Par bulle du 3 janvier 1521, le pape Léon X déclare "bienheureuse" Isabelle de France et le 4 juin 1637, Mgr Jean-François de Gondi, premier archevêque de Paris, autorise le déplacement du corps de la bienheureuse Isabelle pour le mettre entièrement dans le chœur de l'église abbatiale du couvent de Longchamp (ce qui était réservé aux sœurs ayant prononcé les vœux), et en 1670 l'abbesse Claude de Bellières obtient du pape Clément X de célébrer l'octave au nom d'Isabelle, dont la fête a été fixée au 31 août à l’époque.
SOURCE : http://notredamedesneiges.over-blog.com/article-16423743.html
Blessed Isabelle of France, Poor Clare (AC)
Died February 23, 1270; beatified 1520. Isabelle was the only sister of Saint Louis and daughter of King Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. She refused offers of marriage from several noble suitors, including the emperor of Germany (I have no idea who they mean), in order to continue her life of virginity consecrated to God. Isabelle 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 at Longchamps in Paris. She lived there in austerity but never became a nun and refused to become abbess (Benedictines, Delaney).
In art, Blessed Isabelle is a Poor Clare with a crown,
washing the poor (Roeder). She is venerated at Longchamps near Paris
(Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0226.shtml
St. Isabel of France
Daughter of Louis VIII and of his wife, Blanche of Castille, born in March, 1225; died at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St. Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still a child at court, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other virtues. By Bull of 26 May, 1254, Innocent IV allowed her to retain some Franciscan fathers as her special confessors. She was even more devoted to the Franciscan Order than her royal brother. She not only broke off her engagement with a count, but moreover refused the hand of Conrad, son of the German Emperor Frederick II, although pressed to accept him by everyone, even by Pope Innocent IV, who however did not hesitate subsequently (1254) to praise her fixed determination to remain a virgin. As Isabel wished to found a convent of the Order of St. Clare, Louis IX began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of Rouvray, not far from the Seine and in the neighbourhood of Paris. On 10 June, 1256, the first stone of the convent church was laid. The building appears to have been completed about the beginning of 1259, because Alexander IV gave his sanction on 2 February, 1259, to the new rule which Isabel had had compiled by the Franciscan Mansuetus on the basis of the Rule of the Order of St. Clare. These rules were drawn up solely for this convent, which was named the Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin (Monasterium Humilitatis B. Mariæ Virginis). The sisters were called in the rule the "Sorores Ordinis humilium ancillarum Beatissimf Marif Virginis". The fast was not so strict as in the Rule of St. Clare; the community was allowed to hold property, and the sisters were subject to the Minorites. The first sisters came from the convent of the Poor Clares at Reims. Isabel herself never entered the cloister, but from 1260 (or 1263) she followed the rules in her own home near by. Isabel was not altogether satisfied with the first rule drawn up, and therefore submitted through the agency of her brother Louis IX, who had also secured the confirmation of the first rule, a revised rule to Urban IV. Urban approved this new constitution on 27 July, 1263.
The difference between the two rules consisted for the most part in outward observances and minor alterations. This new rule was also adopted by other French and Italian convents of the Order of St. Clare, but one can by no means say that a distinct congregation was formed on the basis Isabella's rule. In the new rule Urban IV gives the nuns of Longchamp the official title of "Sorores Minores inclusæ, which was doubtlessly intended to emphasize closer union with the Order of Friars Minor. After a life of mortification and virtue, Isabella died in her house at Longchamp on 23 February, 1270, and was buried in the convent church. After nine days her body was exhumed, when it showed no signs of decay, and many miracles were wrought at her grave. In 1521 Leo X allowed the Abbey of Longchamp to celebrate her feast with a special Office. On 4 June, 1637, a second exhumation took place. On 25 January, 1688, the nuns obtained permission to celebrate her feast with an octave, and in 1696 the celebration of the feast on 31 August was permitted to the whole Franciscan Order. They now keep it on 1 September. The history of the Abbey of Longchamp had many vicissitudes. The Revolution closed it, and in 1794 the empty and dilapidated building was offered for sale, but as no one wished to purchase it, it was destroyed. In 1857 the walls were pulled down except one tower, and the grounds were added to the Bois de Boulogne
Sources
AGNES D'HARCOURT, third Prioress of Longchamp
(1263-70), wrote the saint's life, Vie de Madame Isabelle, which may be
found in the Archives Nationales L. 1021 MSS. (Paris). A Latin
translation of this book is given in Acta SS., VII, Aug., 798-808; cf.
ibid., 787-98. See also ROULLIARD, La sainte mère, ou vie de Madame
Saincte Isabel (Paris, 1619); ANDRÉ, Histoire de Ste Isabelle (Carpentras,
1885); DANIÉLO, Vie de Madame Ste Isabelle (Paris, 1840);
BERGUIN, La Bienheureuse Isabelle de France (Grenoble, 1899);
DUCHESNE, Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Longchamp, 1255-1789 (2nd
ed., Paris, 1904); SBARA-LEA, Bull. Franc., III (Rome, 1765), 64-9; II
(1761). 477-86.
Bihl, Michael. "St. Isabel of France." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 26 Feb. 2017 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08179a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul T. Crowley. Dedicated to SS. Francis and Clare of Assisi.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Blessed Isabella of France
(Bl. Isabelle de France)
Feast Day - February 23
Isabella was the sister of King Saint Loius IX of France. Her mother, the saintly Queen Blance, bore this child special affection because, after the death of her husband, Isabella was the only daughter still living. Her cousin was King Saint Fernando III of Castile and Leon. Isabella was endowed with remarkable gifts, and special attention was paid to educate her in the requirements of her high position. She knew Latin perfectly and could read the writings of the Gathers of the Church in that language. She was, however, no less capable in accomplishments that are peculiarly feminine. With consummate artistry she embroidered vestments for divine services, and took great pleasure in working for the poor and the sick.
The princess loved and honored her saintly brother Louis, who was her senior by ten years and had then been king for many a year. But her love for God was still greater. One day she was knitting a new-fashioned nightcap. The king asked her to give it to him when finished.
“No,” she said, “this is the first of its kind and I must make it for my Savior Jesus Christ.”
Accordingly, she gave it to a poor sick person, and then made another for the king.
Her life in the royal palace was as retired as that of a nun in her convent. Hardly ever did she speak at mealtime. The choicest food she sent to the sick, and she ate so little even of the ordinary food that it was remarkable how she could live. Blessed Isabella of France fasted three days every week. All the court considered the princess a saint. One of the court ladies, who wrote her life, says,
“We beheld in her a mirror of innocence, and at the same time an admirable model of penance, a lily of purity, a fragrant rose of patience and self-renunciation, and endless fountain of goodness and mercy.”
Isabella’s only desire was to belong entirely to God,
and so she took the vow of perpetual virginity. However, Emperor Frederick II
sought her consent for marriage with his eldest son Conrad. Her mother, her
brother, the king, and even Pope Innocent IV would have liked to see the
marriage take place for the good of the State and the Church. But Isabella
wrote the Holy Father a letter in which she expressed such high regard for
consecrated virginity and so strong a desire to persevere in it, that the pope
praised her highly and encouraged Blessed Isabella of France in her noble
sentiments.
When her mother died, Isabella wished to withdraw from the court in order to consecrate herself entirely to God in a convent. With the king’s assistance she built a convent for the Poor Clares at Longchamps near Paris, and then with several ladies of the court she obtained admission. At the request of the Holy Father, the strict rule of St Clare was mitigated for this community by St Bonaventure, who was minister general of the Franciscan Order at that time, and the modified rule was confirmed anew by Pope Urban IV.
At Isabella’s request, the convent was named for the Humility of Our Blessed Lady. Blessed Isabella of France lived there nine years and desired nothing more than to be a humble subject although she surpassed everyone in sanctity. At her death in 1270 angels were heard singing. Several miracles occurred also after her death, and so Pope Leo X beatified her.
from The Franciscan Book of Saints, edited by Marion Habig, OFM
SOURCE : https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/blessed-isabella-of-france.html
Beata Isabella di Francia Principessa
1225 - 22 febbraio 1270
Figlia del re Luigi VIII e di Santa Bianca di Castiglia, sorella di san Luigi IX. Educata dalla madre con una profonda e severa religiosità, fin dall'infanzia si distinse per la profonda pietà. Una lunga malattia fece maturare in lei la decisione di dedicarsi alle sue pratiche di pietà, alle pie letture e alla cura dei poveri. Si distinse in modo particolare per il culto alle reliquie dei santi e per il mantenimento dei crociati. Dopo aver rifiutato molte proposte di matrimonio e successivamente alla morte della madre, con l'aiuto del fratello, fonda un monastero a Longchamp presso Parigi, poi distrutto durante la Rivoluzione francese. Non adottò la regola di S. Chiara, ma per andare incontro alla comunità di religiose di nobile origine scrisse una regola che mitigava il voto di povertà. Tale regola fu approvata nel 1263 da papa Urbano IV e fu adottata da altri monasteri di Clarisse, specialmente in Francia. Visse santamente a Longchamp sino alla morte avvenuta dopo due anni di malattia. Sepolta inizialmente nella chiesa del convento, ora le sue reliquie sono a Parigi presso la tomba di San Luigi IX e in parte nella cattedrale di Meaux.
Martirologio Romano: A Longchamp nella periferia di Parigi in Francia, beata Isabella, vergine, che, sorella del re san Luigi IX, avendo rinunciato a nozze regali e ai piaceri del mondo, fondò il convento delle Suore Minori, con le quali servì Dio in umiltà e povertà.
La principessa Isabella, sorella minore del re San Luigi IX di Francia, nacque nel 1225 dal re Luigi VIII e dalla regina Santa Bianca di Castiglia. La principale fonte circa la vita di questa beata è la “Vita” scritta da Agnese di Harcourt, badessa del monastero di Longchamp fondato dalla stessa Isabella, che si occupò di lei negli ultimi dieci anni della sua vita. E’ difficile a distanza di così tanto tempo discernere se le sue scelte di vita quali il rifiuto del matrimonio e del cibo, comuni a numerose altre ragazze di un tempo, fossero dettate da convinzioni spirituali e da libere scelte, piuttosto che da elementi patologici, psicologici o politici. Sin dall’adolescenza Isabella nutrì una repulsione verso la sua condizione regale, disprezzando il lusso che la circondava e cadendo in una profonda anoressia, al punto che alla madre per tentare di aiutarla non restò che appellarsi ad una “donna santa”. Costeì si limitò però a fare una profezia, cioè che la giovane principessa sarebbe ancora vissuta come “morta al mondo”. In seguito rifiutà non pochi pretendenti ed al papa Innocenzo IV, che le aveva scritto affinchè accettasse la mano del re Corrado di Gerusalemme per il bene della cristianità, rispose con fermezza negativamente, chiedendo piuttosto con risolutezza ed ottenendo di poter emettere il voto perpetuo di verginità.
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90519
Allirot, Anne-Hélène, « Isabelle de France, sœur de saint Louis : la vierge savante. Étude de la Vie d'Isabelle de France écrite par Agnès d'Harcourt », Médiévales, 48, 2005, p. 55-75.
