Princess Louise of France (1737–1787)

Louise -Marie de Bourbon ( * July 15, 1737 at Château de Versailles, † December 23, 1787 in Saint- Denis, Seine- Saint- Denis ) was a French princess and with the Carmelite monastic name Mère Thérèse de Saint -Augustin.

Life

Louise -Marie was the eighth daughter and the youngest child of King Louis XV. (1710-1774) and his Polish wife Princess Maria Leszczynska ( 1703-1768 ). She was the great-granddaughter of the Sun King Louis XIV Originally known as " Madame Dernière " and later as Madame Marie- Louise.

Princess Louise -Marie was raised along with her ​​older sisters at the Abbey of Fontevraud and came back in 1750 to the court of Versailles. At the same time her father was thinking about marrying the English Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788), known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the oldest son of James Francis Edward Stuart and Titularkönigs the Polish princess Maria Clementina Sobieska after. You should have begged her father that she would rather go to the monastery as a marriage to take unpopular with a man. And after his affair with his cousin Louise de Montbazon and later with Clementina Walkinshaw - from the relationship emerged a daughter - was known to the king took of the project distance.

Surprisingly left Princess Louise -Marie in the early morning hours of April 11, 1770 the royal court, its goal was the Carmelite Convent in Saint- Denis. On September 12, 1771 she took her veil and was henceforth Thérèse de Saint -Augustin mentioned. In the following years she tried a possible reclusive, pious and godly lives in the monastery to lead. As Mother Superior Thérèse de Saint -Augustin she died 50 years old from stomach complaints as a result of poisoning and was buried next to her parents at the Basilica of Saint- Denis. In 1873, Pope Pius IX. them to the Venerable Mother Thérèse de Saint -Augustin (French: Vénérable Mère Thérèse de Saint -Augustin ); Feast day is December 23.

Painting

François- Hubert Drouais: Portrait of Louise -Marie, oil on canvas, second half of 18th century

Maxime Le Boucher: the King's visit to Madame Louise -Marie, oil on canvas, 1770

Mère Thérèse de Saint -Augustin, oil on canvas, 1771

Worth mentioning

• During the French Revolution, the basilica was desecrated and the bones of the interred there, members of the French royal house, including those of Louise -Marie either stolen or buried outside the church.