Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle)

Saint Joan of Arc called herself, Jeanne la Pucelle, meaning "Joan the Maid." "Joan" is the feminine name for "John," which means "God favors." She was later called "Joan of Orleans," or "the Maid of Orleans," for her miraculous intervention in the One Hundred Years War, the turning point of which was the "Siege of Orleans," conducted under Joan's brilliant military command.

Portion of the frieze, "The Life of Joan of Arc," at the Panthéon, Paris.

** page under construction **

Timeline of Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431 AD)

DATE	EVENT	NOTES
	100 Years War starts
1412	Jeanne born to Jaque and Isabelle Darc
1425
	Joan's village ransacked by Burgundian soldiers (English allies)
	Joan's first vision with St. Michael the Archangel
1428	Joan's first attempt to mee the Dauphin fails
1429
	Joan meets the Dauphin
	Siege of Orleans under Joan's leadership
April 29	Joan prays at the Cathedral of Orleans
1429	Dauphin crowned
1430
	Joan taken prisoner by Duke of Luxumbourg
	Charles VII refuses to pay her ranson
	English pay the ranson and she is transferred to Rouen
	Joan is convicted of heresy in ecclesiastical court
	Joan is burned at the stake
1456, July 7	The conviction is invalidated and Joan is declared a martyr for France
1905, April 11	Joan beatified by Pope Pius X
1920, May 16	Saint Joan canonized by Pope Benedict XVI

Joan may have been called Petit-Jean, by her family, after her uncle named Jean (John). Neither Joan nor her contemporaries used the surname, d'Arc, which only appeared during investigations after her death in reference to her family, Darc. The name d'Arc arose as one of several varieties of her family name, Darc, Dars, Dai, Day, Darx, Dart, or d'Arc. Seems to me that d'Arc is merely the coolest sounding of the batch, although, either way, the name arc is derived from the French for arrow, which would be fitting for Joan's presence and effect upon her time. A final possibility is that her father's family originated in the village Arc-en-Barrois, which would make him d''Arc, or "of Arc". The family itself did not use d'Arc, as is found first in print in 1576.

Joan testified that girls in her village did not use their paternal surname and instead used that of the mother, and so hers was Romée, which makes for an interesting connection in that the name derives from "Rome", indicating a pilgrimage to Rome at some point. That becomes interesting to us insofar as at her trial by the English, Joan stood resoundingly for the Roman Pope over a schismatic Pope who had been supported by the French.

Joan used the term pucelle, for "maiden," to emphasize her virginity and purity, and, perhaps, to emphasize her connection to Saint Catherine, the virgin and maiden martyr. As did Joan, Saint Catherine precociously presented herself to a king, in her case, the Roman Emperor Maxentius, and boldly declared God's message. As did the sitting French ruler, the Dauphin (heir to the throne) to Joan, Maxentius ordered an inquiry into Catherine by the emperor's finest pagan theologians and philosophers. When these smartest men in the room were confounded by Catherine's theological arguments, the emperor had her imprisoned and tortured. Joan was also submitted to another but entirely antagonistic inquiry at the ecclesiastical Court at Rouen, under British control, that condemned her, but which she confounded with marvelous simplicity and irrefutable logic. Next for Saint Catherine, we have a slight departure from Joan's story, as Maxentius demanded that Catherine marry him and put her to death when she refused. Nevertheless, there is a parallel for Joan, who was put to death after refusing a conciliatory but compromising offer from the court at Rouen.

If you look up Saint Katherine you will see claims that she never existed, or that the stories about her are medieval fabrications. But that's not how God works. God love types and bookends, and Saint Joan is clearly a "type" of Saint Catherine: When the Dauphin ordered the church inquiry, no one was thinking, "my, that's just what happened to Saint Catherine!" And no such thoughts arose when the court at Rouen tried to force her into admission of heresy by showing her torture machines and then tricking her into signing a document to renounce her visions and to wear women's clothing -- at which point her captors tried to rape her. All very Saint Catherine-like. Joan was also visited by Saint Margaret, another virgin, maiden martyr, who was killed after refusing to marry a Roman governor and to renounce her faith.

As for Joan, she was not mimicking Saints Catherine and Margaret, she was following them directly.

Young Saint Joan at Domrémy

Joan was a peasant girl, but not just a peasant girl. Her father, Jacques Darc, owned about 50 acres of land for cultivation and grazing and a house big and furnished enough to house visitors. He served as the Domrémy village doyen, which included responsibility to announce decrees of the village council, run village watch over prisoners and the village in general, collect taxes and rents, supervise weights and measures, and oversee production of bread and wine. He was not an inconsiderable man, although he was at best a big man in a very small village.

Her mother was more formidable, coming from a modest but better off family. It was she, Isabelle Romée, who after Joan's death championed her to the Church and French government and forced the reassessment of the her condemnations and execution. The name, which Joan indicated was her surname (and not her father's), as girls in her region went by their maternal family name. If so, the name Romée indicates somewhere in the line a connection to Rome, likely through a pilgrimage at some point. The name of the village itself, Domrémy, has an interesting connection to its possible Roman origin, Domnus Remigius, which placed it under the Archbishop of Rhiems, St. Rémi, who baptized Clovis -- thus circling back to a fundamental goal of Saint Joan to coronate the King of France, Charles VII, at Rhiems where Clovis was baptized and Philip II coronated. (At the hand of God, there are no coincidences.)

Joan grew up in this little village with her primary role to tend the farm and household and to spin wool. She tended the animals when she was younger but not much, she testified, after she reached "the age of understanding." She likely also helped with sewing and harvesting the fields.

She was illiterate and uneducated in all but the lessons of farming, Church, and local lore.

Several events from her village life stand out. First, she had a strong relationship with the local pastor, to whom she confessed her visions which started at the age of 13. These pieces fall together for the launch of Joan's mission to save France (or Catholicism -- more on that later). They are seen by skeptics as to obvious to be true and so fabrications. But if you think about it, her trajectory is entirely contingent upon them, so rather than presenting evidence of fabrication, they are strong proofs:

1. Saint Michael is patron Saint and savior of France, and Saints Catherine and Margaret were actively venerated in the region;
2. Joan's visions started after a raid on her village by an English ally, the Burgundian Henri d'Orly;
3. A young man in the village claimed she was betrothed to him;
4. A tree in a grove by the village was said to be occupied by fairies, which village children
5. Local legends held that an armed virgin or a virgin carrying a banner would save France;

It would make absolutely no sense if Joan had come from a place or experience removed from any of the above. Rather than causing her visions, an assertion for which there is no evidence and that is based solely on rejection of divine inspiration, these contingencies affirmed and supported what the visions told her. What the deniers must accept are the clear historical events, all of which were predicted in Joan's visions, so they fall back on the idea that, heh, they're not real, but she thought they were... Nice.

Joan was a Catholic

Kinda hard to realize this given most biographies and depictions of her. But she was fundamentally, authentically and thoroughly Catholic.

Father Jean Massieu recalled that during her trial under the English,

Once, when I was conducting her before the Judges, she asked me, if there were not, on her way thither, any Chapel or Church in which was the Body of Christ. I replied, that there was a certain Chapel in the Castle. She then begged me to lead her by this Chapel, that she might do reverence to God and pray, which I willingly did, permitting her to kneel and pray before the Chapel; this she did with great devotion. The Bishop of Beauvais was much displeased at this, and forbade me in future to permit her to pray there.

and,

And, besides, as I was leading Jeanne many times from her prison to the Court, and passed before the Chapel of the Castle, at Jeanne’s request, I suffered her to make her devotions in passing; and I was often reproved by the said Benedicite, the Promoter, who said to me “Traitor! what makes thee so bold as to permit this Excommunicate to approach without permission? I will have thee put in a tower where you shall see neither sun nor moon for a month, if you do so again.”

If she was anything, she was Catholic.

Her mother taught her to recite in Latin the Our Father, Ave Maria, and Credo prayers.

What'd she do?

1415–1429  Territories controlled by Henry VI of England   Territories controlled by Philip III of Burgundy   Territories controlled by Charles VII of France   Main battles   English raid of 1415   Joan's journey from Domrémy to Chinon   Raid of Jeanne d'Arc to Reims in 1429

It's hard to say what Saint Joan most accomplished, as her episodes are interconnected and woven backwards and forwards. To save France, she needed to crown the Dauphin legitimate King of France; to crown the King, she needed to take the city of Orleans; to take the city of Orleans, she needed the support of the Dauphin (and the French court); to get the support of the Dauphin she needed to prove that she could lead the army. To those ends, three accomplishments stand out:

1. She generated tremendous enthusiasm from the public, which forced the French court to support her;
2. She breathed confidence into the French army, which had been browbeaten and self-defeating until her leadership inspired them; and
3. She scared the crap out of the English.

As to that last, we know just how much she scared them. From a letter to the King of England by one of his generals,

a greet strook upon your peuple that was assembled there [at Orleans] in grete nombre, caused in grete partie, as y trowe, of lakke of sadded believe, and of unlevefull doubte that thei hadded of a disciple and lyme of the Feende, called the Pucelle, that used fals enchauntements and sorcerie. The which strooke and discomfiture nought oonly lessed in grete partie the mobre of youre people.

Translation: she's a witch! (See the reference note for full modern English translation.)

Joan didn't realize it, but once the King of France was duly crowned, her work was done. It's a very sad period in which, hampered by hedging and outright delays from the leadership, she demands movement, and now.

Why Joan only now?

Jeanne d'Arc was canonized in 1905. It's not unusual for such a long delay in beatification, but there are reasons for it with Saint Joan. So why so long for her?

Once her work was done, she was easily forgotten, beginning with the Siege of Orleans and the coronation of Charles VII, upon which the French court did its best to ignore her. Given the opportunity to ransom her upon her capture, the King refused and, well, washed his hands of her. Once they had consolidated rule over France, the kings had every reason -- well, aside from honesty -- not to attribute the legitimacy of their rule to a peasant girl.

French Revolution

> anticlerical

>

Why? Why Joan? Why her suffering?

It confounds the honest reader the betrayals, denials, and injustices that Joan suffered. It's tempting to recognize the interests and intrigues she provoked as normal reactions to the challenges to authority she presented.

Christology of Saint Joan

• born in poverty, among shepherds
• distrust of the leaders
• triumphant entry to Orleans
• betrayal
• Charles VII washing his hands of her
• championed by her mother

Joan's mission: to save France -- or Catholicism?

I have a theory. I developed it before I knew anything about Saint Joan other than she led the French to defeat the English and was burnt at the stake for it all. As I have learned more about her, the theory makes more and more sense that her mission was to save Catholicism, not France.

Henry II's continental holdings in 1154 (in various shades of red), forming part of the "Angevin Empire"

What is "France"?

France, as we know it, doesn't really become "France" until Philip II, but not with national integrity and full identity until Joan of Arc. It's all rather complicated, but following the Norman Invasion of England in 1066, the Normans controlled the north of France and England. After series of power grabs, political marriages, dynastic divisions, and armed contests, by the 12th century, Henry II, who spoke French, had taken over a large part of western France, creating the Angevin Empire, which lasted until the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, in which the French defeated an English and a European coalition that opposed Philip II's conquests of France. As a result, English King John was severely weakened and was forced into signing the Magna Charta and Philip II consolidated France, effectively creating modern France. History weaves complex, indeed.

In 1328, a succession crisis arose at the death of Charles IV of France, whose closest heir was his nephew Edward III of England. Eddie, of course, claimed the throne. Rejected by the French nobles, Ed cut a deal with the Flemish who endorsed him as King of France, everything to do, of course, with the economic binds between English sheep and Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres woolen factories. In the 1340s, Eddie put together an invasion force and in 1346 took the northern city of Caen and then thoroughly humiliated the French at Crécy, largely because the French fought the same war as at Bouvines, with heavy armor, while the English brought in the next thing, the longbow, which could be fired in rapid succession (unlike the French crossbows) and could also pierce armor from distance.

It gets complicated, what with English victories in the southwest of France (remnants of the Angevin Empire) and a series of crises in France, which led to the coronation of Charles VI, "Charles the Mad," known now as the crazy king who thought he was made of glass and so risked shattering. In 1420, Charles disinherited his own son, who would become the "Dauphin" (claimant to the throne of France) that Saint Joan herself, basically, crowned. Charles VII appoints the English King Henry V, who took advantage of the chaos in France and crippled the French army at Agincourt in 1415. After this, the English and their French allies ally, the Count of Burguny

Most people would look upon the Hundred Years War as, and the language of the day, a war between the English and the French. Indeed, the French called their enemy the English, and the English called their enemy the French. They were all French. The war was actually between two French factions, and was thus a civil war, which makes it especially brutal.

In my theory, had the "English," whose rulers spoke French at home, won and reclaimed France on top of England, then both England and France, a hundred years later, would have under Henry VIII left the Catholic church. Sure, lots of conditions may have prevented that, but we can draw a straight line from the Church of England to the Church of England/France. This would not have pleased God.

Whatever the value of my theory that God meant to keep France Catholic, I am intrigued by this excerpt from Mark Twain's account of the trial of St. Joan:

And now, by order of Cauchon, an ecclesiastic named Nicholas Midi preached a sermon, wherein he explained that when a branch of the vine — which is the Church — becomes diseased and corrupt, it must be cut away or it will corrupt and destroy the whole vine.

Whereas the English partisan, Father Midi, saw the destruction of Joan the pruning of a dead branch of the Church (the vine, as Twain correctly explains), by cutting her off, he and Bishop Cauchon were instead pruning themselves from the vine of France. The dead vine cut off was England.

There is an additional

> Henry VIII

> to save France -- from what, the English who were French?

The prophecies of Joan of Arc

Prophecies of the coming of Saint Joan

• Merlin
• St. Bede
• Marie d'Avignon

Joan's own testimony

Joan told her Uncle , Durand Laxart, and a woman with whom she stayed on her second visit with him to Vaucouleurs,

“Was it not said that France would be ruined through a woman and afterwards restored by a virgin?”.

>> see Prophecies | Joan of Arc | Jeanne-darc.info

Testimony of Brother Séguin de Séguin of four of Joan's prophesies

The Dominican friar participated in the inquiry into Joan ordered by the Dauphin after she presented herself to the Court at Chinon. The priest was a Professor of Theology and well-respected. He later testified that she made four prophesies

1. Orléans would be liberated from the English
2. the King would be crowned at Rheims (which
3. Paris would liberated from the English
4. the Duc d'Orléans (Duke of Orleans) would be freed from imprisonment in England

That last prophesy was significant because, while no more improbable than the others, it occurred ten years after her death and had the Duke not returned to France he would never have fathered Louis of Orléans who was crowned Louis XII, King of France, in 1498.

Joan insisted upon the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims, which seemed not ridiculous but dangerous, Rheims was in Burgundy, held by the English allies under the Duke of Burgundy. After Orléans, Joan insisted upon the necessity that the coronation be held in Rheims, which was where Philip II, creator of modern France, was crowned, and was the site of the baptism of Clovis.

From Fr. Séguin's testimony:

I saw Jeanne for the first time at Poitiers. The King’s Council was assembled in the house of the Lady La Macée, the Archbishop of Rheims, then Chancellor of France, being of their number. I was summoned, as also were [list of names] ... The Members of the Council told us that we were summoned, in the King’s name, to question Jeanne and to give our opinion upon her. We were sent to question her at the house of Maître Jean Rabateau, where she was lodging. We repaired thither and interrogated her. And then she foretold to us—to me and to all the others who were with me—these four things which should happen, and which did afterwards come to pass: first, that the English would be destroyed, the siege of Orleans raised, and the town delivered from the English; secondly, that the King would be crowned at Rheims; thirdly, that Paris would be restored to his dominion; and fourthly, that the Duke d’Orléans should be brought back from England. And I who speak, I have in truth seen these four things accomplished.

Historical sources

The history of Joan of Arc is comparatively well-documented, even for the 1400s, a period that yields plenty of artifacts and primary sources. The facts of her life a clear and incontestable. In her day, she was the subject of various documented inquiries, an extended court trial, and subsequent inquiries that document witnesses and assessed evidence. We even know much about her mystical experiences -- or whatever they were, as she told the record about them.

A word on modern Joan of Arc historiography

You will find in the below review of Mark Twain's biography of Joan mention that Twain has been accused of obsessing over little girls and thus his study of Joan of Arc is infatuation not art, a tainted, shall we say, yucky, take on her story. Not at all! Nonetheless, St. Joan somehow challenges the gender-obsessed 20th and 21st centuries. There is absolutely nothing to consider regarding that she was burned as a witch for having worn men's clothing. It had nothing to do with 15th century gender identity. She was a soldier, and soldiers wear pants and cutting her hair, if she did, was an act of prudence not some transgender identity. So we have today works, websites and popular conceptions of Joan as a modern, sexually unburdened, liberated woman. So when you go looking for information about Joan, look carefully, as the perspectives and agenda reveal themselves, such as non-religious, girl-power, or gay perspectives.

So be careful.

Annotated bilbiography

I'm not yet sure of the perspective of the author of this site, but he has produced a useful bibliography with "comments" (annotations): https://joan-of-arc.org/ls_bibliography.html#joa_pernoud

The Trials of Jeanne d'Arc

> see Trials - Overview | Joan of Arc | Jeanne-darc.info

Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

Few people know that Twain wrote about Joan of Arc. There is a story that as a child he encountered a stray page with the story of her trial, and the young Samuel Clemens took great offense at her interrogators. Whether true or not, he became fascinated by her story and yearned to tell it:

I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.

Modern academics who study Twain consider it unworthy of his canon. They can't deny that he thought it was his greatest work, and also that it contains classic Twain wit, but they just can't stand that he was "infatuated" with the Maiden of Orleans.

Some critics complain that in writing the book, Twain succumbed to Catholicism. I have no words to express how stupid that is. It's got to be their animosity for Christianity in general, and for Catholicism in particular, when expressed as profoundly by Saint Joan. Worse, one actually claims that Twain was infatuated by cross-dressing (such as one hilarious scene in Huck Finn and two examples from minor short stories) and his interpretation of the trial of Joan was entirely focused on her male dress. It's even stupider than the accusation of Twain as overly Catholic.

As for Twain's Catholicism, let's just say he falls short. Across this narrative of the life of a devout Catholic, he says next to nothing of the Mother of God, whereas the historical record affirms Joan's devotion to Our Lady. Twain mentions but fails to illuminate the crucial role of Joan's despair over denial of the Sacraments in her coerced "abjuration" (a kind of renunciation, but short of full admission) seven days before her execution. Her longing for the Eucharist must have pained her as much as any other injustice she suffered, and one can be sure that Luke 2:34, "(and you yourself a sword will pierce)" was her regular companion. There are other examples, but none detract from Twain\'s marvelous work. I mention it to show how idiotic it is to criticize Twain for succumbing to either Catholicism or Medieval mysticism, or that he was infatuated with transvestitism - a shameful accusation!

Twain indeed fell in love with the story of Joan of Arch, and he dedicated himself to telling it. And not wonder he worked so hard on it: it's not an easy story to tell, and the lines he draws between his fictionalized characters and the true history are narrow, while never leading the reader astray from actual events. It's a grand project.

A final note: Twain wrote the book before Joan was canonized, thus "Saint Joan" does not appear in the work. Twain does describe her as a saint:

She was not solely a saint, an angel, she was a clay-made girl also — as human a girl as any in the world, and full of a human girl's sensitivenesses and tendernesses and delicacies.

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw

Not much to say about this one. Shaw was early in adulthood an atheist and seems to have wanted into Deism and perhaps belief if not in Christ but in Jesus. The play is considered one of Shaw's greatest works, and it has been repeated on stage through the 2000s and in film. Shaw wrote it after Joan's canonization, thus the title. But he wasn't celebrating it. He tries to humanize Saint Joan, whom he said was romanticized while her accusers were villainized. For Shaw, Joan's tormenters were motivated by the facts and situations before them; you know, it's just a matter of perspective. I can only say that to frame Bishop Cauchon as honestly motivated is akin to Andrew Lloyd Weber's sympathetic portrayal of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. Both did wrong, knew it, and did it anyway. And, worse, Shaw portrays Joan as Weber does Jesus, as an anti-establishment pop star. For Shaw, Joan is a rebel against authority, like his female ubermensch in Man and Superman. Meh.

Jeanne D'Arc (1895) by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

In 1896, Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel illustrated a children's book of the life of Joan of Arc. Through the early 1900s, he expanded several of the images into full paintings, a collection of which are held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, called "La Vie de Jeanne d'Arc":

• 

  La Vision (Vision of the Archangel St. Michael)

• 

  Appeal to the Dauphin (the Dauphin had someone else sit on the throne and hid amidst the Court; Joan identified him immediately)

• 

  The Maid in Armor on Horseback (now Commander of the French Armies, Joan marches the army to free Orleans from the English siege)

• 

  The Turmoil of Conflict (the Battle of Orleans, which is nearly lost after Joan is hit in the shoulder and neck by a bolt, but she returns to the field and leads the French to victory)

• 

  The Crowning at Rheims of the Dauphin (Joan's mission was to have the Dauphin properly crowned King by French custom and in the form of Charlemagne; the leadership thought it was unnecessary, but Joan understood that the people of France needed the ceremony)

• 

  The Trial of Joan of Arc (The King and his councilors betray Joan, leaving her to fight with a small army; she is captured by the French ally of the English. The French King refuses to pay a ransom for her, and she is tried in an illegitimate ecclesiastic court)

Boutet de Monvel first prepared his work on Joan for a children's book, a genre in which he is recognized as significant. The book was a sensation, and he was commissioned to paint similar images as large murals at the newly built Basilica of Donrémy, Joan's birthplace. Only one panel was completed, but William Clark, of a great Montana copper mining fortune, commissioned smaller versions, of which Boutet de Monvel completed six. Clark arranged for his entire art collection, including the Joan of Arc panels to be donated to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC (constituting the entire "Clark Wing" of the building), upon Clark's death. Clark, of Scotch-Irish and French Huguenot descent, was a Presbyterian. His Montana business and political rival was a Catholic, Marcus Daly, and whose investor, Henry Rogers loathed Clark, spurring a 1907 rant against Clark by, ironically in light of his Joan of Arc fascination, Mark Twain. Clark's second wife, neé. Anna Eugenia La Chapelle, was possibly the source of his own interest in Saint Joan. Anna was a French Canadian Roman Catholic, and she had married in Paris. He was an avid art collector

Sources

see

• Joan of Arc: Her Prophecies (saint-joan-of-arc.com)
• The origin of Jeanne's voices and visions (jeanne-darc.info)
• Materials on Joan of Arc (iu.edu)
• At Her Trial, St. Joan of Arc Faced Her Accusers Alone| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com)