Saint Isabel of France Religious Medal "EXCLUSIVE"

Saint Isabel of France (March 122523 February 1270) was the daughter of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. She was a younger sister of Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) and Alphonse of Toulouse, and an older sister of Charles I of Sicily. In 1256 she founded the Franciscan Abbey of Longchamp in the part of the Forest of Rouvray now called the Bois de Boulogne, west of Paris. When still a child at court Isabel was already devoted to religion. By the Bull of 26 May 1254, Pope 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 IV of Germany, son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, although pressed to accept him by everyone, even by Innocent IV, who however did not hesitate subsequently to praise her fixed determination to remain a virgin.