Daughter of the Duke of Savoy, the blessed Amedeo IX, and Jolanda of France (sister of King Louis XI), Ludovica was born in Bourg-en-Bresse on July 28, 1462, into an "itinerant" and very religious family. The capital of the duchy was Chambery, but the court moved for greater control of the territories: House of Savoy already owned the Shroud, which always followed the owners in their movements. The Duke and his wife were lavish towards the poor and the suffering, so that Ludovica was used to taking care of the needy from an early age.
Amedeo died at only 38 years old and the period of peace he had guaranteed to his lands ended with him: due to very intricate political events, in 1476 Jolanda was arrested along with her children. During her imprisonment Ludovica often received visits from Ugo di Chalon, already known at court and who had never hidden his interests from her. Although the desire for cloister was being born in her, a Franciscan known during her imprisonment, Father Giovanni Perrin, convinced her that even marriage could be a path to holiness. Released at the behest of her uncle king of France, after the death of her mother (1478) Ludovica moved to the court of Louis XI, who approved the wedding for economic and political reasons.
They got married in Dijon on August 24, 1479 and it was a happy marriage: prayer and faith were the center of the union, as well as the care of the most needy and attention to the needs of the people. Ludovica herself dedicated herself to weaving clothes for the poor and church ornaments; she was also a caring nurse and solicitous of the sick and lepers.
Unfortunately, in 1490, Ugo died and Ludovica found herself alone. She could have lived as a rich widow or contracted a new advantageous marriage, but the old never-dormant desire to consecrate herself to the Lord made her choose, on the advice of Father Perrin, to enter the Monastery of the Poor Clares of St. Clare at Orbe, who had embraced the Franciscan reform of S. Colette She entered the monastery in 1492, after stripping herself of all her possessions. Great was her spirit of piety and prayer, in an austere and poor atmosphere. She wrote some meditations and a small treatise on the importance, for a monastery, of fidelity to the Rule - manuscripts unfortunately lost.
After many illnesses and sufferings, she died on July 24, 1503. The fame of her holiness spread immediately: the first biographical news items were written by Catherine of Saulx, her faithful companion for twenty years, both before and after entering the monastery. Ludovica was buried in the cemetery of the convent, then, when in 1531 the nuns were expelled from Orbe, her remains were stored in an oak box and transported to the Franciscan convent of Nozeroy.
During the French Revolution the convent was destroyed: all trace of the tombs, even if not profaned, was lost. In 1838 the Savoy king Charles Albert of Savoy obtained from the French government and the Bishop of S. Claude the authorization to carry out the excavations in search of the oak box, which was found in good condition. Ludovica's bones were delivered to Mons. Vogliootti, Royal Chaplain, so that they could be transported to Turin to be placed, with due honors, in the internal chapel of the Royal Palace, at the altar dedicated to his father Amedeo.
In 1839 Carlo Alberto obtained the confirmation of the cult from Pope Gregory XVI, which fixed the liturgical commemoration of the Blessed on July 24.