Saint Louis of Toulouse

Louis of Toulouse was born into the lap of luxury. His father was a king, and his mother was the daughter of a king. As a boy, Louis showed interest in prayer and other religious work at an early age, and in his childhood, he would take food from the castle and give it to the poor. At the age of 14, he, along with two of his brothers, was taken hostage and brought to the king of Aragon's court. Here, he was tutored by Franciscan friars and he developed his intellectual and spiritual self. He renounced his title and became a priest. He soon became a Franciscan and was then appointed Bishop of Toulouse. In his office as Bishop he still wore the Franciscan habit, begged, and received correction (sometimes in public) from a friar. Louis set aside 75 percent of his income to feed the poor and maintain churches, and he brought 25 poor people to his table every day. Sadly, Louis died at the age of 23. He was canonized twenty years later.

The most amazing thing to me about Saint Louis of Toulouse is his charity and selflessness. To give 75% of your income away? I could not imagine doing that. Can you think of how many lives this man touched? I mean, if you fed twenty-five different people dinner at your table for one week, you've given one-hundred-seventy-five poverty-stricken people a meal. How about a month? You've fed 2,850 people. That is amazing. And what's more, he gave up his title like it was nothing so that he could help people. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate what this man did with his life. Perhaps today we should focus on charity and selflessness, and try to do something nice for someone else. Give some cash to the man asking for spare change, or round up some things like clothing, canned goods, paper goods, or toiletries and donate them to a shelter for the homeless or for battered women. If you can't spare a penny, sign up to volunteer with the soup kitchen, Habitat for Humanity, or even your local animal shelter.