ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 4th of February
SAINT JOAN OF VALOIS, QUEEN OF FRANCE
Saint Joan of Valois was daughter of King Lewis XI [Louis XI] and Charlotte of Savoy, born in 1464. Her low stature and deformed body rendered her the object of her father’s aversion, who notwithstanding married her to Lewis duke of Orleans, his cousin-german, in 1476.
HER FATHER DID NOT LIKE HER BECAUSE SHE WAS DISABLED
She obtained his life of her brother Charles VIII who had resolved to put him to death for rebellion. Yet nothing could conquer his antipathy against her, from which she suffered every thing with patience, making exercises of piety her chief occupation and comfort.
SHE MADE EXERCISES OF PIETY HER CHIEF OCCUPATION AND COMFORT
Her husband coming to the crown of France in 1498, under the name of Lewis XII having in view an advantageous match with Anne, the heiress of Brittany, and the late king’s widow, alleging also the nullity of his marriage with Joan, chiefly upon account of his being forced to it by Lewis XI, applied to Pope Alexander VI. for commissaries to examine the matter according to law.
MEEK AND HUMBLE OF HEART LIKE OUR LORD JESUS, SHE PUT UP WITH ALL SORTS OF INSULTS
These having taken cognizance of the affair, declared the marriage void; nor did Joan make any opposition to the divorce, but rejoiced to see herself at liberty, and in a condition to serve God in a state of greater perfection and attended with fewer impediments in his service. She, therefore, meekly acquiesced in the sentence, and the king, pleased at her submission, gave her the duchy of Berry, besides Pontoise and other townships.
THE NEW ORDER
She resided at Bourges, wore only sackcloth, and addicted herself entirely to the exercises of mortification and prayer, and to works of charity, in which she employed all her great revenues. By the assistance of her confessarius, a virtuous Franciscan friar, called Gabriel Maria, as he always signed his name, she instituted in 1500, the Order of nuns of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. It was approved by Julius II, Leo X, Paul V, and Gregory XV.
HER HOLY DEATH
The nuns wear a black veil, a white cloak, a red scapular, and a brown habit with a cross, and a cord for a girdle. The superioress is only called Ancelle, or servant, for humility. St Joan took the habit herself in 1504, but died on February 4, 1505. The Huguenots burned her remains at Bourges, in 1562.
She was canonised by Clement XII in 1738, but had been venerated at Bourges from the time of her death.
From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Joan may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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