St. Joan of Arc

I meant to post this last Sunday, but my internet was down.  This one is for the French as they struggle through another difficult period of their History.

St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of France.  Her story is quite compelling.  She was a typical, uneducated peasant girl who started having visions at the age of 13 of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.  Her visitors gave her a message that she was supposed to drive the English from France.  She was also told to bring the Dauphin, Charles VII, to Reims for his coronation.  Of course few people believed that this young girl had been visited by saints and angels, so accomplishing this mission seemed doomed from the start.

When she was sixteen-years-old, she asked her relative, Durand Lassois, to take her to Vaucouleurs, where she petitioned Robert de Baudricourt, the garrison commander, for permission to visit the French Royal Court in Chinon. Baudricout scoffed at first, but when Joan predicted a military reversal at the Battle of Rouvray near Orléans, which were confirmed several days later by a messenger's report, he came to believe in her voices.

When she arrived in the Royal Court, she met in a private conference with Charles VII and won his trust.  He sent her to lift the siege of Orleans which had already gone on for five months. This teenager with no military training lifted the siege in only 9 days. After the Orléans victory, Joan was able to persuade Charles VII to allow her to march into other battles to reclaim cities, each of which ended in victory.

In May 1430, Joan was captured by the Burgundian faction, which was allied with the English, and was handed over to the English.  She was put on trial for a variety of charges, including heresy and witchcraft.  The presiding judge was an unscrupulous man who was loyal to the English and harbored a personal grudge against Joan. He assembled a panel of 5 bishops, 3 abbots, 7 physicians, 48 doctors of theology, 42 doctors of canon and civil law, and 55 priests, lay brothers and clerics - all loyal to himself.  Joan was not permitted a lawyer, she could not call witnesses on her own behalf and did not receive counsel on the difficult points of law and theology brought up during the trial.  Despite this, she held her own against all these expert men of the church for several weeks before being convicted on the trumped up charges.  She was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.

Twenty-five years later, a Papal investigation cleared Joan of all charges.  Her feast day is May 30.