Joan of Arc
One
What was at stake?
Why was Joan of Arc so significant? Well, you have to understand what was at stake.
Charles IV, King of France died with no male heir. That made Edward III, king of England, the only legitimate successor to the throne of France because he shared the same grandfather with Charles IV. So Edward claimed the kingdom of France for himself. The French nobles didn’t like this so they chose Philip VI, a cousin. This sparked the Hundred Year War between England and France.
Basically, England won most of the wars, gained most of the land, and with the Treaty of Troyes and his marriage to the French Princess Katherine, Henry V King of England had complete control of France. The Rightful King of France was supposed to be Charles VII but a vicious lie was spread that his mother had an affair and therefore, Charles was not the legitimate heir to the French throne.
Now what happens if Joan of Arc doesn’t enter the drama? Well, England retains complete control of France. Then Henry VIII would lead the French Church into Schism along with the English. And Edward, Henry’s son, would lead both England and France to become Protestant.
If that happens then the Catholic Church is lost in France from 1400 on. It's hard to even imagine the devastating effects. We probably never have so many great Catholic Saints like Francis de Sales, Vincent de Paul, Margaret Mary Alocoque and the Revelations of the Sacred Heart, St. Louis de Montfort, Therese of Lisieux, as well as the Marian apparitions of the Miraculous Medal, La Sallete and Lourdes. We lose all that if Joan doesn’t fulfill her mission.
Two
The Sign
Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret were sent from God to reveal to Joan her divine mission. And they become her guiding Voices.
When Joan was just seventeen, in March of 1429, she was granted an audience with the rightful king, but he played a trick on her. He put a decoy, a look-alike in in his place. As Joan approached, she looked at the imposter, turned, and God revealed to her the true King. She immediately strode over to him, dropped to her knees, and proclaimed him the true king of France. Then she said, “I am called Joan the Maid, and am sent to say that the King of Heaven wills that you be crowned and consecrated in your good city of Rheims, and be thereafter the representative of the Lord of Heaven, who is King of France. And He wills that you set me at my appointed work and give me men-at-arms.” After a slight pause, she added, her eye lighting at the sound of her words, “For then will I raise the siege of Orleans and break the English power!”
The perplexed King asked Joan for a sign. He wanted to believe in her and her mission, and that her voices were supernatural and endowed with knowledge hidden from mortals, but how could he do this unless these voices could prove their claim in some absolutely unassailable way? It was then that Joan said, “I will give you a sign, and you shall no more doubt. There is a secret trouble in your heart which you speak of to none—a doubt which wastes away your courage, and makes you dream of throwing all away and fleeing from your realm. You have secretly prayed to God that he tell you whether you are the rightful king or not. I have been sent by God to tell you that you are the lawful heir to the King your father and true heir of France. God has spoken it. Now lift up thy head, and doubt no more, but give me men-at-arms and let me get about my work.”
Three
Joan’s Mission
At just seventeen years old, and a woman, Joan was made the commander of all the armies in France. Her mission was to break the English siege of Orleans and then take Charles to Rheims to be officially crowned King of France.
On May 8th, 1429, Joan led the French to their first victory in one hundred years which broke the siege of Orleans. This victory was the turning point for France. Then in June Joan led the French army to a series of swift victories. Later that month, Joan persuaded Charles VII to proceed to Reims for his coronation. En route to Reims, several towns submitted to Charles VII without resistance, influenced by Joan's reputation.
On July 17th, 1429, Charles VII was crowned at Reims Cathedral. Joan stood by his side, holding her banner, symbolizing the fulfillment of her divine mission to see the rightful king anointed.
Four
Courage as Attack
Courage is to do what is right even in the face of great fear. Courage is lived out in two ways: attack and endure. Attack means we should take action to confront and overcome all obstacles or evils that stand in the way of the good we need to do. But once we have done all we can and we can’t change the situation, then we must act courageously by enduring.
La Hire, the fiercest knight fighting for Joan of Arc explains the courage of Joan, who, when she faced evil, did not shrink back but attacked it to conquer it. “What would Joan of Arc do with it?” said La Hire, “Turn it loose, by the Lord God of heaven and earth, and let it swallow up the foe in the whirlwind of its fires! Nothing shows the splendor and wisdom of her military genius like her instant comprehension of the size of the change which has come about, and her instant perception of the fight and only right way to take advantage of it. With her is no sitting down and starving out; no dilly-dallying and fooling around; no lazying, loafing, and going to sleep; no, it is storm! storm! storm! and still storm! storm! storm! and forever storm! storm! storm! hunt the enemy to his hole, then turn her French hurricanes loose and carry him by storm! And that is my sort! Jargeau? What of Jargeau, with its battlements and towers, its devastating artillery, its seven thousand picked veterans? Joan of Arc is to the fore, and by the splendor of God its fate is sealed!”
Are we willing to overcome all disordered desires, all vices, and all obstacles to fulfill the mission God has given to us?
Five
Courage as Endurance
With attack, we do all we can to change the things that are bad that are also within our scope of authority. But once we’ve done all we can and we can’t do anymore, then we must be courageous through endurance. Endurance is the higher form of courage. In some ways it is easier to take action, even to fight evil vigorously than to accept the things we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change. To endure cheerfully when we can’t change the situation takes more courage than to take action and fight.
Jesus saved the world when he accepted the Cross. The most spiritually fruitful we can be is the patient acceptance and endurance of the sufferings which God in His providence allows in our lives.
Soon after the coronation of Charles VII, Joan was captured by the Burgundians, the French who were allied with the English. They then sold her to the English for 10,000 livres.
“For that sum Joan of Arc the Savior of France was sold; sold to her enemies; to the enemies of her country; enemies who had lashed and thrashed and thumped and trounced France for a century and made holiday sport of it; enemies who had forgotten, years and years ago, what a Frenchman’s face was like, so used were they to seeing nothing but his back; enemies whom she had whipped, whom she had cowed, whom she had taught to respect French valor, new-born in her nation by the breath of her spirit; enemies who hungered for her life as being the only puissance able to stand between English triumph and French degradation. Sold to a French Bishop by a French Prince, with the French King and the French nation standing thankless by and saying nothing. And she—what did she say? Nothing. Not a reproach passed her lips. She was too great for that—she was Joan of Arc.”
A seventeen-year-old girl had defeated the English. To save face they needed to convict her of conspiring with the devil. So they set up a kangaroo court, convicted her, and burnt her at the stake as a witch. In 1456, a retrial authorized by Pope Callixtus III declared Joan innocent of all charges and designated her as a martyr. Then in 1920, she was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XV.
Why did God allow Joan to be captured and martyred? After Joan broke the siege of Orleans and had Charles officially crowned as King of France, the new king asked Joan what she wanted as a reward. Nothing! There was no earthly reward that would satisfy Joan for what she wanted more than any earthly thing was God. But the only way to receive God fully, completely, and perfectly is to die and go to Heaven. So, God in His providence, allowed her to be captured and martyred so that God could give her the greatest prize possible – the gift of Himself.