Joan of Arc, Visionary
30 May -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of any Saint, page 513
Joan of Arc was born at Domrémy in 1412, the daughter
of a peasant farmer. She first heard voices of particular
saints when she was fourteen years old, telling her to save
France, which was caught up in the Hundred Years War with
England. Though at first she was dismissed, her credibility
increased when some of her predictions began to come true.
She managed to identify the disguised dauphin -- later to
become Charles VII -- whose approval she gained. She
persuaded troops to be set to relieve Orléans and
rode at their head, wearing white armour. They were
successful in battle, which increased the morale of the army
and enhanced the reputation of Joan. When the dauphin was
crowned king at Rheims, she stood at his side. Her voices
had warned her that her life would be short yet she was
dangerously naïve in not seeing the jealousies she
provoked. After some failures in battle, she lost favour
and was eventually sold by the Duke of Burgundy to the
English, tried in a court for heresy by the Bishop of
Beauvais and eventually burned at the stake on this day in
1431. Twenty-five years later, the pope formally declared
her innocent. She was made second patron of France after
her canonisation in 1920.