Joan of Arc: "the most beautiful story in the world"

The story and journey of Joan of Arc is a staggering, unprecedented epic. Her actions had a major historical impact, making it possible some time later to liberate France and put an end to the Hundred Years' War.

Jeanne d'Arc à cheval. Enluminure du manuscrit d'Antoine Dufour, Les vies des femmes célèbres, Nantes, musée Dobrée, 1504. ©CC0/wikimedia

Reasons to believe:

Her story is historically indisputable.
Seventeen-year-old Joan of Arc, claiming to be guided by heavenly "voices", became the successful leader of a desperate French army that had experienced a series of defeats.
From the very first battle, Joan's perceptive decisions led to a decisive and unexpected victory at Orleans, and to many more afterwards.
She then set her sights on a single goal: the coronation of King Charles VII in Reims some time later, an event that would change the course of history.
During her capture, trial and execution, Joan emerged even purer and greater than ever, through her attitude, her arguments and her testimony.
French people of all persuasions venerate her as an extraordinary saint, a shining model and a national heroine.
No natural explanation can account for the supernatural story of Joan of Arc.

Summary:

French philosopher Alain described the adventure of this young woman from Domrémy, an army commander, liberator of her people and restorer of her king, as "the most beautiful story in the world". Her historian, Philippe Contamine, added "and the best part is that this story is true".

Few historical figures have been studied as much as Joan of Arc. She underwent seven trials. One she won in Toul, against a young man who claimed she was supposed to marry him. Then, at the king's request, she was examined by ladies to verify that she was a virgin. Then by theologians, who concluded that "there was only good in her". Then came the 1431 Rouen trial, which condemned her; the 1455 Paris rehabilitation trial, which nullified the Rouen trial; the beatification process; and finally the canonization process, which lasted over fifty years.

It's impossible to speak of legend or myth. This fact was recorded at the Rouen trial in her own words: "In my country, they called me Jeannette"; "From my mother I learned the Pater, Ave Maria, Credo, I learned my beliefs from no one but my mother"; "I know the twelve articles of faith very well". From her mother again, she learned to "sew linen sheets and to spin", and said that "in spinning and sewing the women from Rouen have nothing on her". She attended church and helped the poor. She went with the village children to the tree known as the "Beau Mai", and good-humoredly told the judges that she had never seen any fairies there. On feast days of the Blessed Virgin, she made pilgrimages to the church of Notre-Dame de Bermont. She went to confession to her parish priest, and sometimes to religious mendicants.

At age 13 - the age of marriageability for girls at the time - while she was enjoying this peaceful family and village life, she heard a heavenly voice: "And there came this Voice / about the hour of noon / in the time of summer / in my father's garden." François Cheng calls this quatrain "the most beautiful in the French language". "She speaks a French of Christ", said Jules Laforgue.

Where did she get this beautiful language? Brother Seguin, a judge in Poitiers, recounts how he asked her if Saint Michael spoke French and, as the monk had a strong Limousin accent, she replied, "Better than yours!" It was from these voices that she learned to speak so beautifully. "This voice is beautiful, and gentle, and humble, and speaks the language of France." And again: "The angel was telling me the great pity that is in the kingdom of France." The man she called "Gentle Dauphin" gave her twelve thousand men, twelve thousand gold crowns and twelve horses for her personal outfit."

A military leader at the age of 17, she liberated Orleans on May 7, 1429. She led a dazzling campaign in the Loire Valley, culminating in the crushing victory at Patay on June 18 of the same year. She led Charles to Reims, where he was crowned. At mass, her standard fluttered higher than all the others, and when the judges in Rouen reproached her for it as a sign of pride, she replied: "It has suffered. It is only right that it should be honored." She was charging, armed only with her standard to avoid killing anyone, and she once cried out, a surprising statement for a war leader: "I've never killed anyone!" When a bishop retorted: "But come, Joan, you've been to places where many Englishmen were killed", she replied: "How easily you talk about it! They should have gone home." An English lord in the room exclaimed, "What a good woman! Why isn't she English?"

Imprisoned in Compiègne on May 24, 1430, she was brought before a court to the first political trial in history, lasting from February 21 to May 30, 1431. Her time in prison was almost as long as her time in glory; she died repeating the name of Jesus six times, and, before expiring in the flames, one last time with a loud cry: "Jesus!"

Joan's mission had been preceded by the distribution throughout Christendom of a book that would become one of the world's all-time bestsellers: The Imitation of Christ. Joan was an imitation of Jesus Christ. Just as the Son came into this world as a martyred king who, through his sacrifice, brought redeemed humanity back to the right side of the King of Heaven, Joan came, at Heaven's request, to bring an earthly kingdom back to the true lieutenancy of Jesus Christ.

Joan kept saying that her king, Charles, was the lieutenant of Jesus Christ, the true king of France. In imitation of Jesus Christ, she experienced the glory of entering Jerusalem, then dereliction before judges who were bishops, theologians and professors. She died in absolute ignominy, abandoned by all, but after her death, her prophecies were fulfilled. Her veneration spread among the people and the family of France, until her return to glory in the mid-19th century, first by free-thinking and secular historians, then by churchmen, and finally by a French law of 1920 declaring her a "symbol of the nation" and her canonization that same year, a hundred years ago.

With the Acts of the Rouen Trial, the French not only have "the purest and most moving masterpiece in all of literature", but also a true “handbook” from which to draw daily lessons in spirituality and politics, told with the joyful and confident energy - even in suffering - and the splendid common sense of this young girl who is the most perfect embodiment of the soul of France.

Olivier Bonnassies

Beyond reasons to believe:

Joan of Arc is a completely unique saint whose life, deeds, trial and death deserves to be known.

Going further:

Joan of Arc, an 1896 historical novel by Mark Twain (This is a major work on Joan of Arc. Mark Twain himself stated, "I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best." He spent twelve years researching detailed accounts written by both the French and the English, and two years writing. This story is amazingly told).