The great patron of our city of St. Louis was a model ruler, who each day rendered to “Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”   It is said of this holy monarch, that the night before he died, he rose with great difficulty when the Blessed Sacrament was brought to him.  He knelt on the bare ground to receive his Lord one last time in Holy Communion.  King St. Louis counselled his daughter:
“Let your prayer be in peace and recollected. And strive especially that it be made with great earnestness before the Consecration in the Holy Mass, and when the Sacred Body of Christ is really present on the altar.