St. Louis the King in a Barbed Quatrefoil (BK 066)

Believed to have been worn by Jesus during His Passion, the Crown of Thorns is one of the most important relics in Christendom. In 1238, King St. Louis IX acquired it for France from Baldwin II, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople. The French monarch received the Crown at the coastal town of Sens with great pomp and later installed it with solemn ceremonies in the chapel he especially built for it in Notre Dame in Paris. + Here St. Louis wears both halo and his own golden crown as well as an ermine-lined mantle in dark aqua that is decorated with gold fleur de lis. He reverently carries the Crown of Thorns, which emits spiked rays of light, on a plump red cushion. The scene takes place against a damask, tapestry-like background of gold florals on a dark blue field. The whole is enclosed in a barbed quatrefoil, a symmetrical shape formed by four overlapping circles atop an inscribed square that pierces its angles. It is a decorative design common in heraldry and in Medieval Christian art and architecture. + Epilog: Against all odds, the Crown of Thorns survived the French Revolution and was one of the relics rescued from a burning Notre Dame on Monday, 15 April 2019. + Feast of St. Louis the King: August 25 + Image Credit (BK 066): Detail from an antique devotional print of St. Louis IX the King originally published by B. Kühlen, Mönchengladbach, Germany, late 19th-early 20th century, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.