Joan of Arc (Darc), Saint

GIOVANNA D'ARC (DARC), santa. - Heroine of the purest national aspirations of France in one of the most tragic moments of its history.

In 1415 Henry V of England invaded France, contesting the throne with Charles VI; the Franco-English war intertwined with the civil war between the Armagnacs

and the Burgundians. The assassination of the Duke of Burgundy at Montereau (1419) drove Burgundy into an alliance with England: Henry V married a daughter of Charles VI, whom he intended to succeed on the throne of France, eliminating the Dauphin Charles, guilty of the Montereau assassination and suspected of being illegitimate. In 1422 Henry V succeeded Charles VI in Paris, and now English forces prepared to occupy all of France, driving out the Dauphin Charles, who was in Bourges with a small force and was derisively called the King of Bourges. In 1428 the English besieged Orléans; the fall of the city could decide the conflict. At this desperate moment, for the salvation of France which was about to vanish as an independent power, G. d'A. rushed forward.

She was a peasant girl from Domrémy (French Barrois), born to Jacques d'Arc (or Darc) and Isabelle Romée, on January 6, 1412, perhaps; she had brothers and sisters. She had no education whatsoever (she would sign with the sign of the cross), but she possessed a profound religious sentiment. In 1425, at the age of 13, in her father's garden, she heard her first supernatural "voice"; then on several occasions she had luminous visions: St. Michael, St. Margaret, St. Catherine. The "voices" encouraged her to go to the rescue of France. Only in 1428, under the impression of terrible events, did she decide to obey the "voices". An uncle accompanied her to the royal captain of Vaucouleurs, but she met with derision there; she returned a second time, and now Robert de Baudricourt, impressed by the energetic tone of the seventeen-year-old shepherdess, communicated the matter to Charles VII and received orders to send the maiden to him. G. left Vaucouleurs on February 23, 1429, dressed as a man, with a small escort; she arrived at Chinon on March 6; introduced by the King, she recognized him among the courtiers and calmed his doubts regarding his birth: he truly was the son of Charles VI.
After a religious examination by a commission of prelates, several matrons ascertained her virginity, which she had already offered to God back in Domrémy. No one doubted G.'s sincerity anymore when she announced that she had a divine mission to fulfill. To be sure, there were many who hesitated about what a young girl could accomplish, but a great many became her zealous collaborators. The moment was grave: only a supernatural intervention could save the country. The Maid ordered the expedition to Orléans after writing to the English generals

to abandon the enterprise. Dressed as a warrior, carrying a white standard upon which she had caused Christ enthroned among angels to be painted, on April 27 she set out from Blois with a band of armed men escorting a column of wagons with provisions: on April 28 the convoy entered Orléans, and on the 29th the Maid appeared there, welcomed as a deliverer. In the following days fierce fighting took place to drive back the enemy; G. was wounded in the chest, but on May 8 the English definitively abandoned the siege. Now the Maid, along with the Duke of Alençon, undertook an expedition to clear the English from the banks of the Loire; she then insisted on accompanying the king to Reims for his coronation; only in this way would the "gentle Dauphin Charles", as she called him, truly become the King of France.

The Maid set out on June 27 with the vanguard for Reims. Charles VII followed her two days later; resistance was encountered only at Troyes, and G. directed the attack and forced the population to yield. On July 17 the consecration and coronation of the King took place in Reims; the Maid stood by his side during the ceremony holding her standard. "Gentle king, now is God's pleasure done," she said to the King after the coronation.

G. d'Arc had now accomplished the mission entrusted to her by the "voices" and thought of returning to Domrémy; we do not know why she stopped instead. Was it an order from the "voices" or the urging of her companions-in-arms? She was already known everywhere; the most varied legends circulated about "Jeanne la Pucelle envoyée de Dieu". She insisted that Paris be attacked; on August 26 she occupied St-Denis, but she ran up against the indolence and distrust of the King and his advisors. In the attack of September 8 at the St-Honoré Gate she was wounded once again, but she remained all day to encourage the combatants. Then the enterprise was postponed until the following year. In May 1430 she was at Compiègne: faced with an enemy attack, she sortied from the city to fight, and upon her return she was captured by the Burgundians (May 23). She was taken to Beaulieu, to Beaurevoir, to Arras, and then the English bought her for 10,000 livres tournois and took her to Rouen; deeply hated as a witch destined for the stake, she was chained by the neck, hands, and feet.

In January 1431 the trial was initiated under the direction of the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, who

acted on behalf of English interests; he had himself joined by the representative of the Inquisition. The aim was to wrest from G. the confession that the story of the "voices" was nothing more than a deception of hers and that all her actions were due solely to sorcery. In this way the honor of English arms and interests would be completely rehabilitated. From February 21 to March 17 G., chained, was subjected to exasperating interrogations; the trial records show how much simplicity, how much honesty there was in the Maid, and how much malice and determination to condemn her in her inquisitors. It concluded by accusing her of falsehoods, superstition, blasphemies, impiety, and idolatry. Not even the threat of torture induced G. to deny what she sincerely believed. On May 24 at the St-Ouen cemetery, under the most terrible threats, the Maid was induced to abjure what were said to be her errors; she declared that she wished to obey the Church. But realizing that the freedom promised to her was a snare to make her admit that she had sinned, she immediately returned to declaring her faith in the "voices". Following this, as a "relapsed" heretic, she was handed over to the secular arm, and on May 30, 1431, she mounted the stake on the Place du Vieux-Marché. Her ashes were thrown into the Seine.

Charles VII remained inert in the face of the capture and trial of the Maid. Only in 1455, at the official request of G.'s mother and through the prompting of the government, did Pope Callistus III authorize a papal commission to proceed with the revision of the trial and its annulment due to grave defects of form and substance. On June 6, 1456, the sentence of rehabilitation was issued.

Declared Blessed by Pius X on April 18, 1909; Benedict XV proclaimed G. a saint on May 9, 1920. Feast day, May 30. In France, a law of July 10, 1920, proclaimed the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Maid a national holiday.