St. Joan of Arc, Model Crusader
St. Joan of Arc
Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431.
Jacques d'Arc, Joan's father, was a small peasant farmer, poor but not needy. Joan seems to have been the youngest of a family of five. She never learned to read or write but was skilled in sewing and spinning, and the popular idea that she spent the days of her childhood in the pastures, alone with the sheep and cattle, is quite unfounded. All the witnesses in the process of rehabilitation spoke of her as a singularly pious child, grave beyond her years, who often knelt in the church absorbed in prayer, and loved the poor tenderly.
Jacques d'Arc, Joan's father, was a small peasant farmer, poor but not needy. Joan seems to have been the youngest of a family of five. She never learned to read or write but was skilled in sewing and spinning, and the popular idea that she spent the days of her childhood in the pastures, alone with the sheep and cattle, is quite unfounded. All the witnesses in the process of rehabilitation spoke of her as a singularly pious child, grave beyond her years, who often knelt in the church absorbed in prayer, and loved the poor tenderly.
It was at the age of thirteen and a half, in the summer of 1425,
that Joan first became conscious of that manifestation, whose
supernatural character it would now be rash to question, which she
afterwards came to call her "voices" or her "counsel." It was at first
simply a voice, as if someone had spoken quite close to her, but it
seems also clear that a blaze of light accompanied it, and that later on
she clearly discerned in some way the appearance of those who spoke to
her, recognizing them individually as St. Michael (who was accompanied
by other angels), St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and others. Joan was
always reluctant to speak of her voices. She said nothing about them to
her confessor, and constantly refused, at her trial, to be inveigled
into descriptions of the appearance of the saints and to explain how she
recognized them. None the less, she told her judges: "I saw them with
these very eyes, as well as I see you."
The cause of her beatification was introduced upon occasion of an
appeal addressed to the Holy See, in 1869, by Mgr Dupanloup, Bishop of
Orléans, and, after passing through all its stages and being duly
confirmed by the necessary miracles, the process ended in the decree
being published by Pius X on 11 April, 1909. A Mass and Office of St.
Joan, taken from the "Commune Virginum," with "proper" prayers, have
been approved by the Holy See for use in the Diocese of Orléans.
St. Joan was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.
St Joan Quotes
"I place trust in God, my creator, in all things; I love Him with all my heart."
"Je suis cy envoiée de par Dieu, le roy du ciel"
"I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven".
"Je me attens a mon juge, cest (c'est) le roy du ciel et de la terre"
"I trust in my Judge, who is the King of Heaven and Earth"
"My Voices did come from God and everything that I have done was by God's order."
St Joan & the Crusades
St. Joan of Arc, ora pro nobis!
Welcome new Knights and Handmaids to the New Crusade
Welcome new Knights and Handmaids to the New Crusade
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