International Medieval Society, Paris • Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2010 - Traditio
Abstract

The King’s Sainted Brother: Louis of Anjou’s Translation amid the Franciscans at Marseille

Adrian S. Hoch, The Umbria Institute (Perugia)

The death of the young Angevin Franciscan prince and bishop of Toulouse, Louis, in Brignoles on 19 August 1297 has been long understood as a means for his father, Charles II, King of Naples, to promote dynastic sanctity.  Beside such a parental aim, Louis' express wish to be interred inside the Minorite church in Marseille soon was honored.  This site, then a seat for the potentially heretical Spiritual Franciscans, also contained the graves of two holy siblings with Angevin associations, Friar High and the Blessed Douceline of Digne.  These diverse factors were among the issues underscoring Louis' canonization finally promulgated by Pope John XXII on 7 April 1317.  The focus here is how they shaped his development as a saint resulting in Louis' translation on 8 November 1319 financed by his brother, King Robert.      

Months of correspondence passed between the King and the Marseille municipal council to prepare an elaborate show of mutual public piety.  Torch lit processions were scheduled to parade through the center and finish at the ramparts opposite the Franciscan church  beyond the city walls.  The ceremonies would conclude inside  culminating with the transfer of Louis' relics out of the wooden casket buried in the middle of the choir into a silver sarcophagus within a freestanding marble tomb near the high altar.    
  
Although richer, befitting his royal station, parallels occur between the translations of Louis and Douceline.  Both emphasized costly display in deliberate efforts to  diminish their actual sympathies with the Spirituals.  Louis, especially, became a model of Conventual Franciscanism.  Now he could safely be shown to support Robert's legitimate claim to Kingship, in conjunction advance the beata stirps of a cadet branch of the Capetians, while being venerated as one of Marseille's patron saints.  The translation of Louis of Anjou therefore has a threefold effect encompassing Franciscan, dynastic,and communal ideals.