Saint Joan of Arc

Saint Joan of Arc was born at Domremy on the Meuse on January 6, 1412 AD. Her father, Jacques d'Arc, was a small farmer, and her mother was Isabelle. She never learned to read or write.

At about thirteen she heard a voice from God towards noon in summer, in her father's garden. It taught her to be good, to go to church often, and told her she must come into France. She answered with a vow to keep her body and her mind whole for God.

In May of 1428 AD her kinsman Durand Laxart took her to the captain Robert de Baudricourt. Baudricourt told Laxart many times to take her back to her father and box her ears. She returned in January of 1429 AD and lodged with Henri Le Royer in a poor worn red dress.

On February 12, 1429 AD a French force was beaten at Rouvray, as she had announced beforehand. The townspeople then had a man's dress and a full equipment made for her, and bought a horse. She rode out for Chinon on February 23, 1429 AD, eleven days on the road, mostly by night.

St. Joan reached Chinon towards noon on March 6, 1429 AD and lodged at an inn. Brought into the king's room, she picked Charles out among many others. Charles VII said afterwards that she had told him secrets which could be known by God alone.

Bishops and doctors at Poitiers examined her for three weeks before the king would employ her. The Poitiers examiners concluded that they had found nothing in her contrary to the Catholic faith. There she dictated the ultimatum of March 22, 1429 AD ordering the English out of France.

An English army had besieged Orleans since October 12, 1428 AD. She came up the Loire on April 29, 1429 AD, when the contrary wind turned and the boats moved. She entered the town carrying a white banner with the image of Our Lord holding a lily.

She told her chaplain one evening that blood would flow from her body above the breast. The next day, May 7, 1429 AD, an arrow entered between her neck and her shoulder at the Tourelles. The English marched away on Sunday, May 8, 1429 AD, and she forbade any pursuit.

The English army was broken at Patay on June 18, 1429 AD. She had told the captains to have good spurs, because the English would have to be pursued. The royal army left Gien for Reims on June 29, 1429 AD, deep inside enemy country.

Troyes submitted within three days of her promise to bring the king in by favour or force. Charles VII was consecrated and crowned in the cathedral at Reims on July 17, 1429 AD. St. Joan stood beside him through it, holding her standard.

A crossbow bolt went through her thigh at the wall of Paris on September 8, 1429 AD. Charles VII disbanded the army at Gien on September 21, 1429 AD. In Easter week at Melun her voices told her she would be captured before Saint John's Day.

She came into Compiegne secretly at sunrise on May 23, 1430 AD and made a sortie that evening. She stayed with the rearguard, and an archer dragged her from her horse against the river. In November John of Luxembourg sold her to the English for ten thousand livres.

The trial opened at Rouen on January 9, 1431 AD before Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais. She was held in a secular prison under English guards and allowed no advocate. Told on March 17, 1431 AD to submit to the Church Militant, she said Our Lord and the Church were all one.

She asked on May 24, 1431 AD that her case go to the Pope at Rome, and was refused. Four days later she said her recantation had been made only for fear of the fire. She was burned in the Old Market on May 30, 1431 AD, calling aloud on the Name of Jesus.

Her mother, Isabelle, knelt before the commissioners in Notre-Dame at Paris on November 7, 1455 AD. About a hundred and twenty witnesses from every period of her life were then heard on oath. The Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal called her death a martyrdom in his Recollectio of June 1456 AD.

On July 7, 1456 AD the court at Rouen declared the trial and sentence null, void and of no consequence. Pope Benedict XV canonized her at Saint Peter's Basilica on May 16, 1920 AD. France has venerated St. Joan of Arc as its patroness since 1922 AD.