France and England were at war during the lifetime of Joan of Arc. Known as the Hundred Years War, the war started over a dispute on who is heir to the French crown.
In 1415 King Henry V of England invaded Northern France, then ruled by King Charles VI, and defeated him in a war.
England, too, gained the support of Burgundians in France. In 1420 the Treaty of Troyes was signed, which made King Henry V regent for Charles VI who was considered insane. Thus, King Henry would inherit the crown after King Charles’s death. But both kings died in 1422.
The supporters of King Charles’s son, the future Charles VII, regarded the event as an opportunity to get back the crown for a French monarch.
Heard voices of saints
Then came Joan of Arc, who referred to herself as Johanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maid). The youngest among the five children of Jacques D’Arc and Isabelle Romee, she was born on January 6, 1412, in Domremy, a village in northeastern France.
At 13, she started hearing voices. The messages were personal and sometimes accompanied by bright light and visions. The voices were more distinct during the pealing of bells.
In May 1428 she was commanded by the voices to save France by helping restore the oldest son of the French King to his rightful throne and drive away English forces from the French territory. The oblique messages, according to spiritual articles about her, were those of Saints Michael, Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch.
Save France
She cropped her hair and wore man’s clothes. Relying on her vision, she went to Vaucouleurs to contact Robert de Baudicourt, the garrison commander who referred her to the court of France.
To test her, according to a biographical sketch of saints online, the dauphin mingled with courtiers and Joan identified him in the crowd. In their conversation, she revealed to him a private prayer.
When referred to the council of theologians, the clergymen “found nothing improper with her piety, chastity and humility”.
A standard was made for her, wrote A.J.M. and J.K. Mausolfe in Saint Champions for Each Day. She was portrayed “with a representation of kneeling angels presenting a fleur-de-lis to God the Father and bearing the words Jesus, Maria”.
In armor with horse, she accompanied the army to Orleans from May 4 to 7, 1429. After the victory, she escorted Charles to Reims, the traditional place for coronation.
Charles VII was crowned king with Joan of Arc occupying an important place during the ceremonies in July 1429.
Captured and deserted
A year after, the king ordered her to confront the Burgundians who attacked Compiegne. She was captured on May 30, 1430, and sold to the English when the king and France made no attempts to rescue her.
After months of imprisonment, a tribunal presided by “infamous Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais”, who hoped for endorsement by the English as archbishop, heard her case.
Rev. Hugo Hoever, SO Cist, said, “Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of theology, she was trapped into making a few damaging statements.”
Because of her refusal to withdraw her assertion that it was the saints of God who commanded her to do what she has done for France, she was condemned as a heretic and sorceress.
She was 19 when she was burned at stake on May 30, 1431, in the old market place of Rouen. Her ashes were thrown at the Siene River. Her fame grew after her demise.
In 1455 an official ecclesiastical investigation examined the court proceedings and declared her innocent of the charges against her.
She was beatified on April 18, 1909, in Notre Dame, Paris, by Pope Pius X and canonized on May 16, 1920, at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome by Pope Benedict XV.
Through the years people were fascinated with the story of her life. So different was her piety from martyrs and religious in seclusion. Her political decisions that concerned the fate of a country were voices she alone had heard. And she never denied it even in death.
Commenting on her dedication to follow the task assigned her unto death, Robert Ellsberg in All Saints said: “There was certain vagueness about the kind of holiness she represented. Not wanting to emphasize her martyrdom, the church instead emphasized her piety and virginity… She represents a kind of political holiness, not a church piety or the mystical rapture of the convent, but a mysticism expressed in commitment to the world and engagement in the events of history.”
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Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons