Ida of Louvain (died around 1300) was a Cistercian nun of Roosendael Abbey in the 13th-century Low Countries who is officially commemorated in the Catholic Church as blessed.
Ida was born into a well-to-do family in Leuven, Duchy of Brabant (now Belgium). At the age of 22 she felt a religious vocation but her father was a worldly man who would not accept this and subjected her to various forms of ill-treatment to discourage her.[1] Despite parental disapproval, she first dedicated her life to God as an anchoress, and later became a nun in the recently founded Cistercian Abbey of Roosendael (the Valley of the Roses) in what is now Sint-Katelijne-Waver. One historian has described her as adding "éclat" to the monastery.[2] The only contemporary record of her life is in a series of letters by her confessor, a priest named Hugo.
Ida died with a reputation for sanctity and came to be considered a saint.[3] [4] She was said to have experienced stigmata and mystical graces.[5] These included miraculous visions and corporeal encounters with appearances of the infant Jesus, where she would hold him, bathe him, play with him and dress him.[3] [6] She was beatified for her piety and humility. Her official commemoration, granted by Pope Clement XI in 1719, is April 13.[4] [7]