SAINT FEAST DAY 30 MAY: ST JOAN OF ARC

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 30th of May

WELCOME!

SAINT JOAN OF ARC, VIRGIN

Jeanne d’Arc, a peasant girl, born at Domremy in Lorraine in 1411 was distinguished from childhood for her virtues and singular piety. While watching her flock of sheep she ever sought union with God; and was by Him raised to those high degrees of prayer which seem reserved to but few even of His Saints. In Joan’s time, France was torn by Civil War, and in great part subject to the English King, Henry VI. 

VISIONS

In repeated visions of Angels it was shown to Joan that she was to be instrumental in freeing and pacifying her Fatherland. 

ST JOAN WAS BETRAYED

She was directed herself to take up arms in its defence, and to lead the French soldiers to victory. The compelling the English Generals to raise the siege of Orleans, and the conducting Charles VII of France in triumph to his Coronation at Reims, were her chief achievements. But - as she herself had predicted - Joan was to be betrayed and to die in the accomplishment of her work. Taken prisoner, she found herself at the mercy of the English and Burgundians. 

SHE WAS UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED

The Bishop of Beauvais presided over the Court which condemned her to death, mainly on the pretext that she had donned man’s attire and had fought in defence of her country. Every other charge brought against her utterly broke down. She was unjustly condemned to death and burned at the stake at Rouen, May 30, 1431. Her last words were the Name of Jesus thrice repeated. 

SHE WAS CANONISED

Within a very few years the Ecclesiastical Courts annulled the judgment of the Bishop of Beauvais; and the more the history of the Holy Maid has since been looked into, the more clearly has the genuineness of her Divinely inspired mission been shown. After the lapse of nearly five centuries, the Catholic Church has formally canonised the Maid of Orleans. 

Information from The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate