Joan of Arc

Joan d'Arc was born at Domr'emy, a village on the marches of Lorraine and Champagne and dependent upon the town of Vaucouleurs. Domr'emy stood upon the frontiers where lay two roads, one of which was the great high road between France and Germany and the other joined Prague and Vienna.

She could not read, therefore had read nothing, but she had heard others read parts of the Roman martyr logy. Furthering her education was the fountain of Domr'emy, on the brink of a boundless forest ,  haunted to a degree that the parish priest was obliged to read mass once a year. Within the forest were the glories of the land; for in them abode mysterious powers and ancient secrets that exercised even princely power both in Lorraine and in the German Diets. About six hundred years before Joanna's childhood, Charlemagne was known to have hunted there and saw the ancient stag and the inscription upon his golden collar.

The monarchy of France rocked and reeled in extremity. The madness of Charles VI of England is expanded by the story of an unknown man coming out of a forest at noonday. Laying his hand upon the bridle of the king's horse, checking him for a moment to say, "Oh king, thou art betrayed," only to then vanish into thin air."

The battle of Agincourt in Joanna's childhood reopened the wounds of France. Cr'ecy and Poictiers withering an overthrow for the chivalry of France a half century before now opened the door of the drama. The famines, the extraordinary diseases, the insurrections of the peasantry up and down Europe provided the backdrop. The termination of the Crusades, the destruction of the Templars, the Papal interdicts, the tragedies caused or suffered by the house of Anjou, only add to the drama.

The weight upon Joanna's mind was not brought by her age alone, but as one section weaving Through a century back and drawing nearer to some dreadful crisis. The signs were told through the memories of older men, while Joanna could see angelic visions and hear angelic voices which whispered to her forever the duty, self-imposed, of delivering France. For five years she listened to these monitory voices with internal struggles. Now at age 19 when could resist no longer. Doubt gave way and she left her home forever in order to present herself at the Dauphins court.

When Joanna appeared, he had been on the point of giving up the struggle with the English. She liberated Orleans, that great city, so decisive by its fate for the issue of war, and then beleaguered by the English with an elaborate application of engineering skill unprecedented in Europe. Entering the city after sunset on the 29th of April, she sang mass on Sunday, May 8, for the entire disappearance of the besieging force. On the 29th of June she fought and gained over the English the decisive battle of Patay.

On the 9th of July she took Troyes by an unexpected and power attack, from a mixed garrison of English and Burgundians; on the 15th of that month she carried the dauphin into Rheims; on Sunday the 17th she crowned him; and there she rested from her labor of triumph.

But she, the child that at nineteen had wrought wonders so great for France was not elated. During battle she showed the temper of her feelings by the pity which she had every expressed for the suffering enemy. She interposed to protect the captive or the wounded; she mourned over the excesses of her countrymen; she threw herself off her horse to kneel by the dying English soldier, and to comfort him. Her mission now complete, the end was now at hand.

Whether by treacherous collusion on the part of her own friends or not, she was made a prisoner by the Burgundians, and finally surrendered to the English.

Now came her trial, which was conducted by the French Bishop of Beauvais, who sold out to English interests hoping to reach the highest preferment. Her charge is heresy!

On the Wednesday after Trinity Sunday in 1431, being then about nineteen years of age, the Maid of Arc underwent her martyrdom. She was conducted before midday, guarded by eight a hundred spear men, to a platform of great height, constructed of wooden billets supported by occasional walls of lath and plaster, and traversed by hollow spaces in every direction for the creation of air-currents.

In death her meek, saintly demeanor, ten thousand men wept. What else was it but her constancy, united with her angelic gentleness, that drove the fanatic English soldier to suddenly turn away a penitent for life, saying everywhere that he had seen a dove rising upon wings to Heaven from the ashes where she had stood? What else drove the executioner to kneel at every shrine for pardon to his share in her death?

And what of the Dominican monk who was standing almost at her side who did not see the danger, but still persisted in his prayers.

That girl, whose last breath ascended into heaven, did not utter the words recant either with her lips or in her heart, was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

Lessons Learned and Applied From Joan d'Arc

• Our children are great leaders and teachers, if only we would listen.

• In this life we may have many friends, then none except for one - God.

• An answer to prayer is not always what we are prepared to accept.

• 500 years is not very long in God's time.

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