Today May 30

Today is the great feast of St. Joan of Arc, Jeanne la Pucelle (1412-1431). She was born in Domremy, the daughter of a peasant farmer. She was skilled in sewing and spinning but never learned to read or write. She certainly never learned any theology. Which makes it so remarkable that she stood up so well against theologians, both before the Dauphin would consent to take her on as general and later in her terrible trial by the English and Burgundian ecclesial kangaroo court which sentenced her. She was burned at the stake for heresy, witchcraft and the terrible crime of wearing men's clothing -- because the hypocritical English (and their French collaborators) could not just outright kill her for beating them in battle (at Orleans -- her first great battle: April 29, 1429; then Patay, Troyes, Compiegne -- almost. It was there that she was left outside the castle after the governor had the drawbridge lifted and she was captured). So they subjected her to a horribly protracted trial with threats of torture -- and worse -- and though she bested them and dazzled them with her phenomenal memory, seemingly infused knowledge, and great good sense, she did -- briefly -- retract what she said, faced with weakness and death in the graveyard at St. Ouen. But she took back her retraction and faced death with all the simplicity, courage, and innocence she had in all the challenges of her short life. She was 19. She died calling out "Jesus!" as she looked upon a cross held up by a Dominican friar. Afterward, John Tressart, one of King Henry V's secretaries, cried out, "We are lost: we have burned a saint!" . . . And so they had. Twenty-three years later, Joan's mother and brothers had the Vatican reopen the case . . . and she was exonerated. 450 years later she was canonized.

Poor Joan was subjected to misunderstanding even long after her death. This mere woman who listened to the voices from heaven (later identified as St. Michael, St. Catherine, St. Margaret and others) with -- eventually -- the great-hearted spirit of the Annunciation and did all for the love of God and his Church has been remade as "Joan the Protestant" by the likes of George Bernard Shaw. Not true. She's been made into the "Joan of the theater" -- a sentimental milkmaid who is both attractive and tiresome. She was not; she was practical, loyal, a brilliant militarist, wholly disinterested, and a girl with both feet on the ground. She was made into "Joan the Nationalist." A patriot she certainly was -- but she was in the service of Justice first and not a rampant nationalist. And she's been made into "Joan the feminist" -- possibly the least true of them all. She was no disaffected woman; she wasn't out to change the world, thumb her nose at men and reject all those things so dear to members of my sex: a husband, a home, children. No, she was quite simply: a saint.

She is, additionally, not honored as a martyr; she is a virgin. But she is also the patroness of rape victims. (This is no doubt owing to the treatment she received at the hands of the Burgundians and [later] the English [the French made no effort to free or ransom her]). Does that imply a contradiction? Not at all. With great good sense, the Church recognizes the virginity of the heart -- which is more important anyway -- regardless of how the body may be involuntarily ravaged. I wish the whole world would get that wisdom! Dear St. Joan of Arc, pray for us.