St. Louis washing the feet of the poor. Painting by Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau.
It was the custom of Saint Louis IX to wash the feet of twelve randomly chosen poor men during Holy Week. One year, a pauper took the ceremonial in quite the literal, not its symbolic sense and admonished the king for not washing his feet properly washed, all the while pointing to the part of his foot in need of further attention. The king knelt down once more and did everything the poor man wanted.
Edmond Guérard, Dictionnaire encyclopédique d’anécdotes (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1872), Vol. 1, p. 552. (Nobility.org translation.)
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 405
