GIOVANNA DI VALOIS (JEANNE DE FRANCE), Saint. — Daughter of Louis XI, King of France, and Charlotte of Savoy, and foundress of the Religious of the Annunciation, born in Paris on 23 April 1464, died in Bourges on 4 February 1505. An object of aversion to her father both for her profound piety and for her small stature and deformed body, she was nevertheless given in marriage in 1476, for political reasons, to her cousin Louis, Duke of Orléans.
He imitated his father-in-law in his disregard for G., and despite her having obtained his release from prison, to which he had been condemned for rebellion against his sovereign, as soon as he ascended the throne under the name of Louis XII, he hastened to seek the annulment of his marriage to G., on the grounds of coercion suffered by him and her inability to bear children. The papal commission declared the marriage null on 17 December 1498; and G. accepted the sentence as a favour, which offered her the means to serve the Lord more freely. Having retired to the Castle of Bourges, granted to her as an appanage, there she founded, with the approval of St Francis of Paola and the assistance of the Franciscan Gabriele Maria, the Order of the Annunciation (1500), confirmed by Alexander VI on 15 February 1501. At her profession on Pentecost 1503, G. took the name Sister Gabriella Maria. The cult paid to G. from the beginning was confirmed by Benedict XIV on 21 April 1742; she was canonised by Pius XII on 20 May 1950. Feast day 4 February.