|
|
Joan of Arc, c.1412-1431
The French patriot and martyr, Joan of Arc, was born the daughter of well-off peasants at Domrmy, a hamlet on the borders of Lorraine and Champagne, January 6. The English conquered the area in 1421 but their forces withdrew in 1424. Joan received no formal education but was endowed with an argumentative nature and shrewd common senses.
At the age of thirteen she thought she heard the voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret bidding her rescue the Paris region from English domination. She presented herself before the local commander, Robert de Baudricourt, and persuaded him, after he had had her exorcised, to take her across the English-occupied territory to the dauphin at Chinon, which they reached March 6, 1429. According to legend, Joan was called into a gathering of courtiers, among them the dauphin in disguise, and her success in identifying him at once was interpreted as divine confirmation of his previously doubted legitimacy and claims to the throne. She was equally successful in ecclesiastical examination to which she was subjected at Poitiers and was consequently allowed to join the army assembled at Blois for the relief of Orleans. Clad in a suit of white armor and flying her own standard, she entered Orleans with an advance guard on April 29 and by May 8 forced the English to raise the siege and retire in June from the principal stronghold on the Loire.
To further aid French resistance, Joan took the dauphin with an army of 12,000 through English-held territory to be crowned Charles VII in Rheims cathedral on July 17, 1429. She then found it difficult to persuade him to undertake further military exploits, especially the relief of Paris. At last she set out on her own to relieve Compigne from the Burgundians, was captured in a skirmish and sold to the English by John of Luxembourg for 10,000 crowns. She was put on trial (February 21-May 17, 1431) on charges of heresy and sorcery by an ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition, presided over by Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais.
Most of what we know about Joan's brief life are those preserved in the records of her trial. She was found guilty, taken out to the churchyard of St. Ouen on May 24 to be burnt, but at the last moment broke down and made a wild recantation. This she later abjured and suffered her martyrdom at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen on May 30, faithful to her "voices." The apparitor of the archiepiscopal court, Maugier Leparmentier, was present and recorded that:
The day when Joan was burned, the wood was got ready to burn her before the sermon was finished or the sentence had been pronounced. And no sooner the sentence uttered by the bishop, without any delay, she was taken to the fire, and I did not see that there was any sentence pronounced by the lay judge. But was at once taken to the fire. And in the fire she cried more than six times "Jesus," and above all with her last breath she cried in a loud voice "Jesus!" so that all present could hear her. Almost all wept with pity, and I have heard say that the ashes, after her burning, were gathered up and cast into the Seine.
The usher, Jean Massieu, added that:
The pious woman asked, requested, and begged me, as I was near her at her end, that I would go to the near-by church and fetch the cross to hold it raised right before her eyes until the threshold of death, that the cross with God hung upon be continually before her eyes in her lifetime. Being in the flames she ceased not until the end to proclaim and confess aloud the holy name of Jesus, imploring and invoking without cease the help of the saints in paradise. And what is more, in giving up the ghost and bowing her head, uttered to name of Jesus as a sign that she was fervent in the faith of God.
In 1456, in order to strengthen the validity of Charles VII's coronation, the trial was declared irregular. In 1904 she was designated Venerable, declared Blessed in 1908 and finally canonized in 1920.
St. Joan of Arc
b.1412 d.1431
Feastday: May 30
Patroness of soldiers and France
St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France. On January 6, 1412, Joan of Arc was born to pious parents of the French peasant class, at the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine. At a very early age, she heard voices: those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.
At first the messages were personal and general. Then at last came the crowning order. In May, 1428, her voices told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. For at that time the English king was after the throne of France, and the Duke of Burgundy, the chief rival of the French king, was siding with him and gobbling up evermore French territory.
After overcoming opposition from churchmen and courtiers, the seventeen year old girl was given a small army with which she raised the seige of Orleans on May 8, 1429. She then enjoyed a series of spectacular military successes, during which the King was able to enter Rheims and be crowned with her at his side.
In May 1430, as she was attempting to relieve Compiegne, she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English when Charles and the French did nothing to save her. After months of imprisonment, she was tried at Rouen by a tribunal presided over by the infamous Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who hoped that the English would help him to become archbishop.
Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of theology, Joan was trapped into making a few damaging statements. When she refused to retract the assertion that it was the saints of God who had commanded her to do what she had done, she was condemned to death as a heretic, sorceress, and adulteress, and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was nineteen years old. Some thirty years later, she was exonerated of all guilt and she was ultimately canonized in 1920, making official what the people had known for centuries. Her feast day is May 30.
Prayer to St. Joan of Arc
Patroness of France
Most extraordinary soldier, you insistently proclaimed: "Let God be served first!" You began by winning many victories and received the plaudits of princes, but then you were given to the enemy and cruelly put to death. Instill in us the desire to serve God first and perform our earthly tasks with that idea ever in our minds. Amen.
Internet Resources
Joan of Arc bibliography
Joan of Arc biography at The Catholic Encyclopedia
Joan of Arc biography
Joan of Arc biography (Miles Hodges)
Joan or Arc Center
Joan of Arc FAQ
c. 1412-1431
French national heroine
The English were eager to prove that Joan could have defeated them only by using witchcraft.
Introduction Joan of Arc is the most famous fighting woman in European history. On the battlefield, she motivated her troops to drive the enemies from her homeland. Although she knew nothing about warfare, she claimed to be guided by visions of saints. Few people believed her; many thought she used sorcery. When Joan's enemies captured her, they declared her a witch and burned her at the stake. Yet her inspiration lived on after her death. She had fought for her king and her country as a whole. This was a new idea to the people at that time, and it helped unite them in victory. Afterward, many came to believe that, indeed, she was divinely led.
Joan was born about 1412 in the village of Domremy, in the Champagne district of northeastern France. As the daughter of a farmer, she grew up herding cattle and sheep, and helping in the fields during the harvest. She did not go to school and never learned to read or to write. Like most peasants in her time, Joan was religious and spent much time praying to the statues of saints that stood around the church in her village.
Battles over Aquitaine At the time of Joan's birth, France and England were engaged in a long period of conflict known as the Hundred Years' War. Although this conflict was not really a war, it lasted for more than 100 years. From 1337 to 1453, the two sides fought a series of separate battles over the territory of Aquitaine, a rich land in southwestern France. England had gained control of this area in the twelfth century and was determined not to lose it. France was equally determined to drive the English away from it.
Henry V
In 1420, after England had won some important battles and gained control of territory in northwestern France, the English and French signed the Treaty of Troyes. This treaty allowed King Henry V of England to become king of France when Charles VI, the current French king, died. Two years later, though, both Henry and Charles died. Charles VII, son of the French king, proclaimed himself heir to the throne. But the French people would not recognize him as king until he was crowned in the cathedral in the English-controlled city of Reims (the traditional site where French kings were crowned).
Trying to capture territory that rightfully belonged to Charles, the English soon broke the Treaty of Troyes by invading central France. In 1428 they attacked the city of Orleans, about eighty miles south of Paris. A victory here would have allowed the English a chance to control all of southern France. But they were stopped by the French, who were led by a seventeen-year-old peasant girl Joan.
Voices tell her to lead army From about age 13, Joan would later claim, she began having visions of St. Michael (captain-general of the armies of Heaven), St. Catherine, and St. Margaret (both early Christian martyrs). Joan believed the saints told her to drive the English away from Orleans and out of the country, and to take Charles VII to Reims to be crowned. In 1429, after repeated visions, Joan went to the commander of the French army at Vancoulers to explain her mission. He was doubtful at first, but finally sent her dressed in soldier's clothes to Charles. Joan soon convinced Charles that God had sent her to save France. She reportedly did this by revealing to him secrets that he believed were known only to himself and to God.
Charles gave Joan a suit of white armor. Legend states that her sword came from the church of Saint Catherine of Fierbois. Even though she had never been there, she told her attendants the sword could be found behind the alter, and it was. Joan then led a group of French soldiers against the English at Orleans. She was wounded, but fought on. Her courage inspired her soldiers to drive the English from the city. Because of this victory, Joan became known as the Maid of Orleans. After a few more battles in which her army cleared the English from the surrounding Loire valley, Joan brought Charles to Reims for his coronation on July 17, 1429.
Captured and tried as a witch Charles later decided that he wanted to negotiate with the English and the Burgundians, people of an independent state within France who were allies of the English. Joan, on the other hand, wanted France for the French, and she fought on. But she soon lost a few battles. In May of 1430, during the battle of Compigne, Joan was captured by the Burgundians. She was then sold to the English for 10,000 pounds, taken to the city of Rouen, and shackled to a dungeon wall.
The English were eager to prove that Joan could have defeated them only by using witchcraft. They brought her to trial for sorcery and heresy (the act of challenging the authority of the Church). The representatives of the Church who tried her believed that God would speak only to priests. They wanted her to deny that she had heard the voices of the saints and to remove the soldier's, or men's, clothes that she wore, since this was a violation of Church rules. But Joan refused to do what they wanted.
Months in prison Charles, whom Joan had helped crown, sent no one to rescue her. After months in prison, sick and weak, she finally signed a general statement of faults and put on women's clothes. The authorities had promised Joan that she could attend church and confession after she had signed this statement. But afterward, they would not let her leave the dungeon; they had lied to her. In response, Joan put on her soldier's clothes once more. For this disobedience, she was quickly sentenced to death, and on May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen.
The shameful story of her death led everyone involved to try not to take the blame. Even Charles tried twice to have the verdict against her overturned. In 1456, a mere 25 years later, Pope Calixtus III declared that Joan had been not guilty, and condemned the verdict against her. In 1920, almost 500 years after her death, the Catholic Church canonized
c.
|
|
|
|
|
History
