Flora Cantábrica

Saint Joan of Arc

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Saint Joan of Arc
Martyr
(1431)
History:
At the age of 17, this saint became a national heroine and a religious martyr. Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in Donremy, France. Her father, James of Arc, was a peasant.
Joan grew up in the countryside and never learned to read or write. But her very pious mother instilled in her great trust in the Heavenly Father and a tender devotion to the Virgin Mary. Every Saturday, the young Joan picked flowers from the fields to take to the altar of Our Lady. Every month she confessed and received Communion, and her greatest desire was to attain holiness and never commit any sin. She was so good and kind that everyone in the village loved her.
Her homeland, France, was in a very serious situation because the English had invaded it, quickly taking over many cities and wreaking great havoc.
At fourteen, the girl Juana began to hear voices calling her. At first, she didn’t know who it was, but then she began to see flashes of light, and the Archangel Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret appeared to her, saying, «You must save the nation and the king.»
Out of fear, she didn’t tell anyone at first, but later the voices insisted strongly that she, a poor, ignorant peasant girl, was destined to save the nation and the king, and she then told her relatives and neighbors. At first, people didn’t believe her, but after the voices’ insistence and the young woman’s pleas, an uncle took her to the army commander in the neighboring town. She told him that God had sent her to deliver a message to the king. But the soldier didn’t believe her and sent her home again. However, a few months later, Joan returned to the commander, and upon hearing the news of a defeat the girl had prophesied, he sent her with an escort to see the king.
Upon arriving in the city, she asked to speak to the king. To deceive her, he disguised himself as a simple villager and placed another man in her place. The young woman arrived at the great hall and, instead of heading to the king’s replacement, guided by the «voices» that directed her, went directly to the disguised king and spoke to him, telling him secrets the king had never imagined. This caused the king to completely change his mind about the young peasant girl.
Only one important city remained to fall to the English: Orleans. And it was besieged by a strong English army. King Charles and his military already believed the war was lost. But Joan asked the monarch to grant her command of the troops. And the king appointed her captain. Joan ordered a white flag made with the names of Jesus and Mary and, at the head of ten thousand men, headed toward Orleans.
Encouraged by the young captain, the French soldiers fought like heroes, driving out the attackers and liberating Orleans. They then marched on to several other cities and liberated them as well.
Joan didn’t fight or injure anyone, but at the head of the army, she went from group to group, encouraging the combatants and inspiring them with enthusiasm, and she was wounded several times in battle.
After her resounding victories, Saint Joan obtained the acceptance of the fearful King Charles VII as head of the entire nation. This was done with impressive solemnity in the city of Reims.
But then jealousy arose, and a period of suffering and betrayal began for our saint. Until now, she had been a national heroine. Now she would become a martyr. Many employees of the king’s court were jealous that she was becoming too important and began to wage war against her. Something very important was missing in that national war: the conquest of Paris, the capital, which was in the hands of the enemy. And Joan headed there with her brave men. But King Charles VII, out of jealousy and collusion with the enemy, withdrew his troops, and Joan was wounded in battle and taken prisoner by the Burgundians.
The French had abandoned her, but the English were extremely interested in keeping her in prison, and so they paid more than a thousand gold coins to the Burgundians to hand her over and sentenced her to life imprisonment.
The English made her suffer greatly in prison. The humiliations and insults occurred daily and at all hours of the day, to the point that Joan exclaimed: «This prison has been such a cruel torment for me, such as I had never imagined it could be.» But she continued to pray with faith and proclaim that she had indeed heard voices from heaven and that the campaign she had undertaken to save her homeland had been by God’s will. At that time it was very fashionable to accuse any woman of witchcraft that one wanted to make disappear. And so it was that the enemies accused Joan of witchcraft, saying that the victories she had obtained were because she had performed witchcraft on the English to
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