When one sees a
beautiful building or perhaps a High Rise we can admire it from the outside or
even from the inside. We can photograph it and admire it we can even write a
story about it gleaned from the facts known. We can write a technical paper on
it going into depth on the design and methods of construction, or we can even be
critical on how it could have been done better. We cannot know the bulding half
as well as the craftsmen who actully built it nor can we feel it as they
did. No; we can only express from a limited view never knowing as others who
know every bolt every filigree that made it the way it is.
The same goes for a famous
personage. We can write about them from the facts known. We can be critical
of them for their seeming mistakes, but in the final analysis we can never
really know from this. No; unless we can be in harmony with them and see things
the way they did and deal with the circumstances the way they had to then we can
get somewhat of a feel of who they really were. But we still do not know them.
We still can only express in a large part of what we see.
When we hold a
newborn child we see the form but what cannot be seen readily is the human
potential that is contained in that small form. We cannot see the plan God has
for that child and we do not know them as he does. In 1412 the birth year of
Saint Joan sons were more favored than daughters as sons could contribute to the
heavy labor required to work the land. Being devout Catholics Jocques and
Isabelle accepted this latest addition to their family as a blessing. Unknown
only to God such a blessing! Thus this tiny form was welcomed into the family
and life went on.
Domremy was populated by people of strong character and
devout. The baby Joan received six sets of God Parents at her christening. Truly
one could say the village of Domremy was one big family as regardless of
bloodline each child was parented by the whole village. Domremy like Bethlehem
did not count as anything important in the affairs of men but each produced a
personage that would alter the affairs of men. Domremy was an ideal ground
to produce a saint! Samuel Clemens said it best
that it could not produce
an Einstein or an Edison as the environment and opportunity simply did not
exist. Jesus Christ was
tucked away with his family in the village of
Nazareth until the time of revalation. Joan hidden away in Domremy until
the time of revalation. Both locations were ideal for growth in the Holy Spirit.
Both were well acquainted with hard work and deprivation.
Both surrounded by
devout parents as well as devout towns people. People in Domremy lived what they
believed and it is in this environment that our Joan grew physicaly, mentally,
and most important spiritually. She expressed an unusaul depth of character at
an early age along with unusual piety and compassion.
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the
Lord.
'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher
than your ways,
And My thoughts than your
thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
In this place of natural beauty and quiet in the
quiet meadows Joan developed. Her village attacked by Bergundians forcing the
people to flee to Neufchateau for protection drove home the perilous
condition France was in at the time. These senseless
attacks on unarmed
villagers was to be sure a sore point with her. It did produce a resolve of
patriotism within her and that began the long road to Rheims. Every saturday
Joan walked the path to the chapel of Notre Dame De Bermont and prayed there so
it is logical that she knew how to pray the Rosary. Having made these
pilgrimages and going to mass each day was her custom and receiving the
sacraments she had in her own interior life attained the promises of the first
saturdays. Joan of her own free will consecrated her virginity to Christ. Like
so many outstanding maidens in church history that did the same; history
resounds with their extraordinary achievements, usually ending in martyrdom. To
name a few; Saint Agnes, Saint Lucy, Saint Perpetua, Saint Anastasia, Saint
Philomena, Saint Margaret, Saint Catherine. Saint Margaret of Antioch and Saint
Catherine of Alexandria were Joan`s patron saints.
She was a dreamer, and loved in the evenings to watch
the stars break out in the skies, or to follow during the day the changes of
light and shade. The sound of the wind in the branches and in the thickets, the
murmur of the springs, and all the harmonies of Nature, enchanted her. But most
of all, she loved the sound of bells. It was to her like a greeting from Heaven
to earth, and when in the peaceful eventide, far from the village in some little
valley where her flock was gathered, she heard their silvery notes, their slow
and calm vibrations making her hour of her return, she would fall into a sort
of ecstasy, into a long prayer in which her whole soul reached out towards Heaven.
In spite of her poverty, she found the means of giving little gifts to the
bell-ringer of the village, in order that he might continue the peal of his bells
longer than usual. Full of the intuition that her coming on earth was for some
great object, her thoughts plunged into the depths of the invisible, trying to
trace the path on which should go. "She searched her own mind," Realizing already
a purpose driven life. Whilst the souls of her companions were imprisoned
in their fleshly garb, her whole being lay open to high influences. In the hour
of sleep her spirit, freed from material ties, attuned with the Holy Spirit.
There it strengthened itself in the powerful currents of life and of love, and
on awakening preserved some intuition of its experience. Thus, little by little,
her spiritual faculties awoke and grew. Soon they were to be brought into
action.
We have arrived at the point where non believers those who do not
share the same faith as Joan can penetrate her no further
We are now in the
realm of the holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit enable us to live a
holy Christian life. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom - desire for the
things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and
glory. Understanding - enable us to know more clearly the
mysteries of faith. Counsel
- warn us of the deceits of the devil, and of
the dangers to salvation. Fortitude - strengthen
us to do the will of God in all things. Knowledge -
enable us to discover the will of God in all things. Piety - love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love
Him. Fear of the Lord - have a dread of sin and fear
of offending God.
Theological
Virtues
Belonging or relating to God. Faith, Hope,
and Charity have God for their direct object and motive. The matter on
which our faith is excercised is called the object; why we believe is termed the
motive. Virtue. A habitual tendency to act rightly; the
opposite to vice, which is a blemish or fault.
Cardinal
Virtues Principal or chief, from Latin Cardo, a hinge. All other
virtues either depend or spring from them. Prudence. This virtue enlightens our mind, and leads
us to take proper and effectual means for securing our
salvation. Justice.
Giving what is due to God, our neighbours, and
ourselves. Fortitude.
Having courage to resist anything which may hinder our
salvation, and to bear bravely all trials for the love of
God. Temperance.
Being
moderate in all things. ‘He that is temperate’, saith the wise man, ‘shall
prolong life’ (Ecclus. 37:34)
The twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit are:
Charity; (love)
Joy;
Peace;
Patience;
Benignity;
Goodness;
Longanimity;
Mildness;
Faith;
Modesty;
Continency;
Chastity. (Gal. 5:22)
The preceding is
an outline of Joan`s character; who she is! Born into the ideal circumstances to
bring forth the firm character
necessary to fufill a very difficult mission.
Almighty God has a purpose for each one of us and has given us the gifts
necessary to fulfill that if we choose. The Blessed Virgin Mary could have said
no. All of the saints preceding Joan could have said no as well as Joan. However
in the case of Mary she was chosen. In Joan`s case also she was chosen.
Most of us are called and if we answer that call we fufill what god had in
mind for us to do. Mostly that what seems to us simple things for not everybody
is called to be a Mary or a Joan neither would it be possible or
necessary. There is no such thing as a small work in the eyes
of God! Remember that he sees it! What I have said here is that Joan had
gone beyond mere belief to that rock solid ground of
knowing.
The first vision came in the summer-time at mid-day.
The sky was cloudless, and the sun poured down upon the widespread fields.
Jehanne was praying in the garden which stretched from her father’s house down
to the church. She heard a voice which said to her, "Jehanne, daughter of God,
be good and wise. Frequent the church. Put your confidence in the Lord." She was
terrified, but raising her eyes she saw in a dazzling light an angelic figure
full of strength and sweetness surrounded by angels.On another day the Archangel, Saint Michael, and the
Saints who accompanied him spoke of the state of the country and revealed to
her, her mission. "It is necessary that you go to the help of the Dauphin,
so that through you he may recover his Kingdom." Jehanne, taken aback, excused herself.
"I am
only a poor girl and I know neither how to write nor how to fight."
"Daughter of God, go. I will be your
help," the voice replied to her. Notice the address: ( When Daniel was addressed
by the angel he
referred to him as "MAN OF HIGH ESTEEM". When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary
he addresses her "HAIL FULL OF GRACE, FAVORED ONE". When appearing to Saint Joan
he referred to her as "DAUGHTER OF GOD".) These addresses are important as they indicate the
status of the individual before the throne. Saint Joan was already a
Nobel.
Little by little her interviews with the spirits became more frequent. They were never of long duration. Counsels from on high are always brief, to the point, and luminous. That is clearly shown by her replies to those who questioned her at Rouen: "What doctrine did Saint Michael teach you?" they asked her.
"He always said, ‘Be a good child, and God will help you.’
This is both simple and sublime and sums up all the law of life. High spirits do not dissipate their energy in long speeches. Even to-day those who can communicate with the higher realms of the Beyond only receive teaching which is condensed and marked with high wisdom. Jehanne added: "Saint Michael has told me to be good and to frequent the Church."
So it is in the case of every soul who aspires to good. Rectitude and prayer are the first conditions of a true and pure life.
One day Saint Michael said to
her, "Daughter of God, you will lead the Dauphin to Reims, so that he may
receive his Consecration."
Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret said to her continually, "Go! Go! We will help you." Thus there was
established between Jehanne and her guides close relations. From her "Brothers
of Paradise" she drew the necessary courage to carry out her work. She was
filled with the idea. France awaited her. She must go; In the early dawn of
a winter day Jehanne rose. She had prepared her light baggage – a small packet –
and her staff. Then she went to kneel at the foot of the bed where her father
and mother were still lying. Weeping silently she murmured a farewell. At this
sad moment she may well recalled the kindness and the cares of her mother and
the troubles of her father, whose brow was already wrinkled with age. She may
have thought of the gap which her departure would cause, and the grief of all
those whose life and joys and troubles she had always shared. But duty called
her. She must not fail in her task.
It is here that we give the
definition of an Apostle: It means Sent by God. As
Saint Paul was instructed by Jesus and sent forth to evangelize the Gentiles,
Saint Joan of Arc was sent forth as an Apostle to France. Everywhere she went by
thought, word and deed she evangelized all she came in contact with especially
her troops. What did Jehanne herself
say to all those who met her on her journey? "I come from the King of Heaven and
I will bring you the help of Heaven." This is the mystery and the
charism
that has confounded researchers and lay persons alike. Liberating France
was a secondary mission her primary mission was to restore the faith of France! A people who had
lost their way.
But what a marvelous situation!
Here is a child coming to draw France out of the abyss. What does she bring with
her for the task? Is it military aid? Is it an army? No, nothing of the sort!
What she brings is simply faith in GOD, faith in the future of France, that
faith which exalts the soul and which can move mountains. What did Jehanne herself say to all those who met her on her
journey? "I come from the King of Heaven and I will bring you the help of
Heaven." Mathew 17:20 for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a
mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it
will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. Truly it can be said that God
planted a mustard seed the smallest of all seeds in Domremy and it grew into a
mighty tree we know as Joan of Arc. She had only one King; Jesus
Christ!
Saint Joan of Arc is one of the
most wrote about of Saints of the Catholic Church. Her name has been comandeered
for every cause both noble and ignoble. She has been accused of being a heretic,
a sorceress, a transvestite, a feminist and some have gone so far as to say she
was in secret a lesbian or she had a mental condition, all
of which is ridiculous and nothing
more than the empty clanging of cymbals in the breeze. She has had myraid
books wrote about her and of course historians have poured over the historical
records and wrote these acounts of her life as known in the record and
we have to give them thanks for that effort. There are some one million web
pages on her world wide so saying she is very popular would be truth. Yet in
all of this only one author actually approached and was able to express the real
Joan and that was Samuel Clemens. He could approach it but could only go so far
as he was hindered by the same problem as all the others he could not know her
in the spirit! He did however write not ony a beautiful and truthful eulogy to
her he also wrote a very beautiful essay in which he approached her in
truth. According to his testimony he was inspired by a newspaper article that
was on a page that blew in the wind and landed at his feet. It was his work as
well as Saint Therese of Lisieux which brought on a wave of
popularity.
In the 580 years since her Martyrdom there has been churches
bearing her name, parades and celebrations in her honor
but oddly no one raised up an apostleate to her until we raised
this Confraternity. It gives one the feeling that no matter how popular only a few
have taken her seriously as a Saint! One could say however that Orleans,
France as well as the country of France is her apostleate.
What is
advisable is to ignore the warrior figure, the person caught up in the politics
of the time where all were using her to their advantage. The sad truth is both
the French and the English sent her to her death using that death to further
their own ends. The Church caught in schism and the manueverings of a corrupt
Bishop during a time of war brought her to the Pyre but truth will always win
out in the end and all was reveresed finally declaring her second celestial
owner of France. It is true that once an accusation is lodged suh as; Heretic,
or Sorceress even though a conviction is reversed and nullified the stigma
remains for instance in the case of Samuel Mudd who was accused of being a co
conspiritor in the assasination of President Lincoln. He was proven innocent in
a court of law but that did not change the stigma. thus the expression "His name
is Mudd".
Joan of Arc's victory at Orleans
(1429), according to the Commentaries of Pius II Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, a
statesman, poet and humanist, ascended to the Papal throne as Pius II in
1458. Writing in the third person, his work, the Commentaries of Pius II
is part autobiography, memoir, diary and history. Much of his work
revolves around the warfare and politics of Italy, but he also makes many
remarks on events further away, including the following item on Joan of
Arc. The text below starts just after Joan arrives in the presence of the
Dauphin and asks for an army to relieve the besieged city of Orleans. For
another account of this siege and battle, please see Joan of Arc's campaigns,
from the Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. For more information on
Joan of Arc, please see (Kelly DeVries' article Teenagers at War
During the Middle
Ages.)
The matter
was discussed in council for some time with various opinions. Some said the
girl was crazy, others said she was bewitched, others that she was inspired by
the Holy Ghost, and these last recalled the fact that Bethulia and other cities
had in the past been saved by woman; the kingdom of France had often been aided
by Heaven; it might be that now too it was defended by a maid sent by God and
that the task had been committed to the weaker sex that the French with their
accustomed pride might not be overconfident of their own powers; in any case a
girl whose advice was so sensible could not be called mad.
This opinion prevailed and they entrusted the matter of Orleans to the Maid. A woman was put in command of war. Arms were brought, horses led up. The girl mounted the most spirited steed; then in her gleaming armor brandishing her spear like Camilla in the tale she made him leap, run, and curvet. When the nobles saw this, none of the them scorned to be commanded by a woman. All the noblest took arms and eagerly followed the Maid, who, when all was ready, set out on the march.
The approach to Orleans by land was very difficult. All the roads were blocked by the English and at each of the three gates they had a camp fortified with a moat and a rampart. The Maid, knowing that the river Loire flows by the walls of the city, loaded ships with grain in a secluded place and embarked with her troops, sending word to the besieged that she had started. By rowing quickly and taking advantage of the swift current she appeared in sight of the city before the enemy knew she was coming. Armed English troops rushed up and putting out in small boats tried in vain to prevent her landing. They were forced to retreat with many wounds.
The Maid entered the city, where she was received with great rejoicing by the people, and brought supplies of all kinds to a populace near starvation. The next day at dawn she at once furiously attacked the camp of the enemy which was besieging the main gate. Filling the moats and shattering the mound and rampart she routed the English in confusion, captured their fortifications, and set fire to the towers and bulwarks which they had built. Having thus heartened the townsmen, she made sallies through the other gates and did the same in other camps.
Since the English forces were stationed in several different places and one camp could not come to the help of another, the siege of Orleans was weakened by these tactics and then utterly broken. All the enemy who had fought against the Maid fell so that there was hardly anyone left to carry news of the disaster. The glory of this exploit was credited to the Maid alone, though very brave and experienced soldiers who had often commanded troops took part in it.
Such a massacre of his men and such
humiliation was unbearable to Talbot, the most celebrated of the English
commanders, and with 4,000 horsemen picked from the entire army he marched
against Orleans to fight the Maid if she dared meet him, never doubting that
when she came through the gate he could either capture or kill her. But
the event proved quite otherwise. The Maid led out her troops and as soon
as she saw the enemy, with loud shouts and terrific force she charged the
English lines. Not a man dared to stand fast or show his face; sudden
panic and horror seized them all. Although they were superior in numbers they
had supposed they would be fewer and thought countless forces were fighting for
the Maid. Some even thought angels were fighting on the opposite side and
had no hope of victory if they found themselves battling against God.
Their drawn swords fell from their hands; everyone threw away shield and helmet
to be unencumbered for flight. Talbot's shouts of encouragement were
unheard and his threats unheeded. It was a most shameful rout. They
presented only their backs to the Maid, who followed up the fugitives and took
or killed every man except a few - including the commander, who when he saw that
his men could not be rallied, made his escape on a swift horse.
She had
always been considered innocent by those of her own faction. The city ofOrléans commemorated her death each year beginning in 1432, and
from 1435 onward performed a religious play centered around her victories. The
play represented her as a divinely sent saviour guided by angels. In 1452,
during one of the postwar investigations into her execution,Cardinal
d'Estouteville declared that this religious play would merit
qualification as a
pilgrimagesite by which attendees could gain an
indulgence
from sin.
I
might point out here that Saint Joan of Arc was the only saint in church history
to have a pilgrimage site granting a partial indulgence from sin, long before
being formally canonized!
Then Saint Joan remains
somewhat obscure except in France until roughly the 1800`s when secular scholars
began publishing translations of the historical documents in the National
Archives of France. This caused a resurgence of her poularity outside
of France in of all places in England. Then in the United States gradually
spreading. She was always loved by the French settlers so with this and the fact
tbat one august and venerable Bishop Felix Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, France
and his prominent reputation as a scholar and theologian put his stamp of
approval on Joan and forwarded her cause for beautification and as especially
she was the favorite Saint of Saint Therese of Lisieux (both never lived to see
it done), Finnally on May 16, 1920 at Saint Peter`s Bascillica in Rome Saint Joan of
arc received her full vindication and took her place in the role of the
Saints
of the Church
she so loves.
Here we will include some of What Samuel
Clemens had to say;
The evidence
furnished at the Trials and Rehabilitation sets forth Joan of Arc's strange and
beautiful history in clear and minute detail. Among all the multitude of
biographies that freight the shelves of the world's libraries, this is the
only one whose validity is confirmed to us by oath. It gives us a vivid picture of a
career and a personality of so extraordinary a character that we are helped to
accept them as actualities by the very fact that both are beyond the inventive
reach of fiction. The public part of the career occupied only a mere breath of
time -- it covered but two years; but what a career it was! The personality
which made it possible is one to be reverently studied, loved, and marveled at,
but not to be wholly understood and accounted for by even the most searching
analysis.There is no blemish in that rounded and
beautiful character. How strange it is! -- that almost invariably the artist
remembers only one detail -- one minor and meaningless detail of the personality
of Joan of Arc: to wit, that she was a peasant girl -- and forgets all the rest;
and so he paints her as a strapping middle-aged fish woman, with costume to
match, and in her face the spirituality of a ham. He is slave to his one idea,
and forgets to observe that the supremely great souls are never lodged in gross
bodies. No brawn, no muscle, could endure the work that their bodies must do;
they do their miracles by the spirit, which has fifty times the strength and
staying power of brawn and muscle. The Napoleons are little, not big; and they
work twenty hours in the twenty-four, and come up fresh, while the big soldiers
with the little hearts faint around them with fatigue. We know what Joan of Arc
was like without asking -- merely by what she did. The artist should paint her
spirit -- then he could not fail to paint her body aright. She would rise before
us then, a vision to win us, not repel: a lithe young slender figure, instinct
with "the unbought grace of youth," dear and bonny and lovable, the face
beautiful, and transfigured with the light of that lustrous intellect and the
fires of that unquenchable spirit.
Taking into account, as I have suggested before, all the
circumstances -- her origin, youth, sex, illiteracy, early environment, and the
obstructing conditions under which she exploited her high gifts and made her
conquests in the field and before the courts that tried her for her life, -- she
is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever
produced.
Her name comes from the Hebrew Yochana which in ancient
French is Jehanne in English Joanna, Joan, Joanne. Some of the French Varients
for Jehanne, are Jean, Jeannette, in Hebrew Yochana feminine
(Yochanan) Masculine; is translated directly to Joanna ancient french Jehanne is Joanna or
back to Yochana.
The very first answer of Joan to her vocation is the wish of
virginity which she spontaneously makes at 13 years age, the first time
that she heard the "voice".
This wish expresses the total gift of herself, in all her person,
her heart and her body, with the single love of Jesus. According
to her own words, it is "the promise made with Our-Lord keep well her
virginity of body and heart. To keep the virginity of the heart, she is to
always remain in the friendship of God, in this "state of grace" which is
for Joan the supreme value, more invaluable than the life, she is
never deliberately not to grant the serious sin, "mortal" because she might
lose the friendship of God who is grace and which is life. For Joan, this
"virginity of the heart" is expressed especially in an absolute obedience with
the will of the Lord, even when He orders apparently impossible
things.
Christian virginity is
initially this purity of a heart attached to God without division, but it is
also purity of the body, testimony returned to the holiness of the body. And on
this point, the testimony of Joan is impressive. All the texts of the time call
it "Joan the Virgin", i.e. the virgin. The virginity of the body, physical
virginity of Joan, is a historical data absolutely true, particularly attested
by the Lawsuits. It is incredible that a young and beautiful woman, alive day
and night with soldiers, could keep her virginity. and yet, it is true. And even
the most beautiful testimonies are precisely those of these soldiers, of these
comrades in arms, which lived in the radiation of the purity of Joan: with
them, she was close, friendly, and at the same time she inspired an
immense respect from them. Joan will feel herself more threatened in
her prison, connected and kept by enemy soldiers, but the Lawsuits give us the
certainty of it, like holy Maria Goretti, she received the grace to
defend her virginity until death.
Our age doesn't much understand
the veneration the Catholic Church has for a Fifteenth century Virgin and
Martyr. Both Virginity and Martyrdom seem alien virtues in an age that is
conditioned to do everything possible to remain alive as long as possible and
treats sex like just another recreational activity. Virginity and Martyrdom?
What does that mean?
The virtue of virginity is even misunderstood by Christians who otherwise value celibacy and 'family values.' People can't help but misconstrue the virtue and see it as somehow anti-marriage and anti-sex. Certainly there have been some Catholic writers who have treated sexual relations as innately filthy, but this is Christianity infected with Manichaeanism--that Eastern idea that the physical realm is somehow less worthy than the spiritual. So what is the virture of virginity?
There seem to me to be two aspects to it: first of all we value the virgins not because they have never had sexual intercourse. That would simply be a negative definition--like defining someone from Des Moines as 'a person who has never been to Paris, France.' No, there must be a positive virtue and it is that the virgin is one who has retained the essence of innocence and childhood. The gospel says that unless we become like a little child we cannot enter the kingdom, and the virgin is one who has retained a sense of beautiful, child-like innocence. Secondly, the virgin is one not one who has simply never had sexual intercourse. Lack of this action does not mean a person is truly a virgin. A person could be a physical virgin but be anything but virginal in his or her thoughts and words and activities.
The second aspect which confirms a true virgin in the spiritual sense is that this person who has remained a little child is also consecrated totally to God. This is the second aspect of virginity that all of us can learn from. We see the virgin martyrs like St Joan of Arc and they become icons of what each of us must be, for each one of us, no matter how soiled and stained by our sins must again become like a little child. We must once more be washed in the blood of the Lamb and be restored to our baptismal perfection through the sacraments. We must also, like the virgin martyrs be totally and utterly dedicated to God. They show us this in their actual lives. We hope to attain it by God's grace.
Saint Joan is also a martyr in an age that cannot understand martyrdom. It is strange that we cannot, for we have just emerged from the bloodiest century the world has seen, a century when more innocent souls of all sorts endured torture and deprivation and a kind of martyrdom in the death camps, the pogroms, the holocausts and genocides. It is Christianity which begins to make sense of these deaths and says, "Here are souls who are baptized finally into the complete identification with Christ. They have given their blood for the blood of the Lamb"
So Joan and the other martyrs show us two truths in their martyrdom. First, that there are some precious deep down realities that are the foundation of everything else, and we cannot compromise them without compromising everything else. Our faith is our heart. Take out our heart and we cease to live. The martyrs tell us that these deep down realities are so precious and so eternal that we would rather die than lose them. If this is so, then the martyrs also show us that to live in that reality is to live a kind of martyrdom day by day anyway. We are there to live only for that deep down reality which is the faith, and living that way is a way of daily, joyful sacrifice.
St.
Joan of Arc, Virgin and Martyr, pray for
us
This from Etienne Robo:
St Joan stands alone in history. Many women have found
sanctity in the cloister, some have shown bravery in battle, but no other ever
trained herself to holiness in a soldier's camp, and surely no female saint ever
died at the stake condemned by an ecclesiastical tribunal as a witch and a
heretic.
Her story is incredible, but true: it rests on the most
abundant and clear evidence. She was a peasant girl of no importance and before
she was eighteen her intervention had already changed the course of European
history for centuries to come. When she died at nineteen, thanks to her the
French had become conscious of being a nation,
We cannot explain this by a mere recital of the diplomatic
and military history of the times. The hand of God clearly appeared in these
events. Joan of Arc was the tool He chose to accomplish His work: she is the
explanation of the miraculous reversal of the fortunes of France which followed
her appearance on the stage of history; but she was a saint first, and,
therefore, in this little essay you must expect to find more about Joan the
woman and the saint than about Joan the warrior. Were it not for her trust and
faith in God, and for her inflexible resolve "to
serve god first" she would
in time, like her friends, Mengette and Hauviette, have married some poor
laborer and lived and died in some obscure hamlet of
Lorraine
We might add here that
her life and Martyrdom saved France, and as a result France was to become a major
force in the creation of of Canada and The United States, her life is
included as a major event in the timeline of the Church, did much to heal the
schism and is venerated by her former enemies.
How anyone can study
the life of Joan and still remain an athiest or agnostic is a bit bewildering
to me but in large part they do.
It is blatently obvious that she was
chosen by God and gifted by him I have always believed that the so called Maid
of Lorraine prophesy was more used by God as opportunity rather than proceeding
from fact. Legends and Myths usually have their basis in truth somewhere but let
us not detract from the facts with an unprovable point. So while the so called
wise of this world keep beating themselves up looking for an explanation of just
How Joan came to have these extrordinary gifts without acknowliging the work of
the holy Spirit and Christ, for it seems they will never acknowledge first
causes; GOD.
Joan attended first saturdays by walking to the chapel of
Our Lady of Bermont
and praying there so with that fact clearly in mind
then we can clearly state that knowing Joan must be
done in the Holy Spirit and understanding how God works through the holy spirit
with each of his children of which Joan was chosen. Joan possesed a
wisdom not of this world thus to understand this wisdom one has to be in tune
with the source of the knowledge. Old soldiers were startled at her knowledge of
mechanics of waging war, well no wonder Saint Michael taught her. Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret were her patron saints and some wonder where
her
elequence came from? No doubt Joan possesed an excellent mind and the
ability to use eye to hand co-ordination in a short time.
Beyond that she was
prophetic and all her prophisies came to pass exactly as stated. In a court
of law she amazed learned judges and councellors., How she endured that English
prison is understood by those who know The epistle to the Hebrews and the lives
of the saints. Her heritage from her family, Jocques D`Arc of the tribe of Remy
and Isabelle Romee of the house of Rome (house of David) Born as the fifth child
with older brothers to watch out for her and strict Catholic parents. Born into
a village with six godparents and the entire village were 3rd order Franciscans.
In order to really know Joan one has to possess the same depth of Faith as
she. One has to understand her charisms and although Domremy for most could not
produce a warrior, for Joan it was the ideal ground to come from. Then knowing
as she, one can recount her story and not only tell it but feel it and more
importantly the source that moved her life. Joan was a third order Franciscan
and met with Saint Collette during her public life.
Jeremiah 1:5 (NASB) - "“Before I
formed you
in the
womb I knew you, And before
you were born I consecrated you."I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater, things
than these, because I am going to the
Father." NASB
Joan did not leave behind grand writings
she probably would have if she had lived BUT that was not the purpose of her
life, that was not her mission. her death only part of that mission for she has
accomplished far more afterward. Her biography is a matter of legal sworn record
irrefutable, and is contained in both trials. Her faith etched in stone with the
bull of canonization issued by the church.
TO KNOW THE REAL JOAN THEN ONE HAS
TO EMBODY THE SAME FAITH SHE HAS FOR THAT TRUE KNOWING FOR IN THAT ALL QUESTIONS
OF HOW SHE DID WHAT SHE DID FADE INTO THE BACKGROUND AND IS SUMMED UP BY
"GOD BE FIRST SERVED."
OTHERWISE ONE WRITES ANOTHER BOOK TO JOIN THE SOME
22,000 OTHER BOOKS ALL SAYING WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS THE SAME
THING!
History does not record the anguish of leaving her parents and
disobeying her father to obey God. Nor does it record the feelings she
experienced while convincing Beaudracourt. It does not tell us of a hundred
privations or the pain of wounds, to bring the then
unsure Charles to his
proper place. The crushing disapointment of realizing that most had forsaken her
or the broken heart of enduring a trial falsely accused. We cannot see the quick
intake of breath as she commanded her army forward. Joan was far more of a woman
than history tells. Showing her in armor only shows the warrior Joan not the
woman underneath. Only those who have commanded in battle can truly appreciate
the feelings of seeing your troops die. The trial and death was not the first
injustice done to her but it was the last. What have we done with the freedom
she paid such a high price to procure? Knowing Joan is to know the woman inside
the armor, the woman that gave herself to God and in her brilliance showed
us all how to live and more importantly how to die.
On January 6th, 1412 the feast of Epiphany the Angel Of
Domremy was born and her light was like a flash of lightening in the life of an
entire nation. She illumined all with her Charisms and on May 30th, 1431 the
feast of Corpus Christi she departed leaving behind a changed country, changed
hearts and illumined the world in her time and in ours.
Joan`s
feast day is may 30th the day she was martyred. On that day she joined an august
list of Saints who gave the last full measure.