Basilica of St. Louis, King of France 19th century. Bishop Joseph Rosati, who ordered the construction of the church, is interred in a vault underneath the sanctuary. Basilica of St. Louis, King of France The Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France (), formerly the Cathedral of Saint Louis, and colloquially the Old Cathedral, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and until 1845 the only parish church in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of two Catholic basilicas in St. Louis, and it is named for King Louis IX of France, also the namesake for the city of St. Louis. The
Name of France successfully opposed this claim and managed to preserve "Francia Occidentalis" as an independent kingdom, distinct from the Holy Roman Empire. The Battle of Bouvines in 1214 definitively marked the end of the efforts by the Holy Roman Empire to reunify the old Frankish Empire by conquering France. Since the name "Francia Orientalis" had disappeared, there arose the habit to refer to "Francia Occidentalis" as "Francia" only, from which the word France is derived. The French state has been in continuous existence since 843 (except for a brief interruption in 885–887), with an unbroken line of heads of states since the