30th May: Feast Day of Joan of Arc

Today is the feast day of St Joan of Arc. A young girl who leaves home to go and join in a war. Is she really so different from the jihadi brides of today? You decide.

1. Joan of Arc was the daughter of a farmer who was also a village official.
2. She was 13 when she had her first vision - of Saints Michael, Catherine and Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. Joan related that they looked so beautiful that they made her cry.
3. She was sixteen when she went to the nearby town of Vaucouleurs to try and get permission to visit the French court. She was dismissed by the garrison commander, Robert de Baudricourt, but she tried again a few months later, and this time, some of his men agreed to help her.
4. Travelling through the country, she disguised herself as a male soldier, a sensible precaution recommended by her escort. However, this became one of the major charges against her at her trial. "Cross-dressing" was a serious crime in those days. She also wore men's clothing while in prison. Although at first she wore a dress to help her case, after an attempted rape by an English Lord, she reverted to male clothing again.
5. Joan claimed that she had never actually killed anyone in battle - her role was to carry a banner to encourage the troops. Neither was she given direct command of an army, although the noblemen who were in command would listen to her advice because they believed it came from God. Whether or not you believe that, history has shown that the armies tended to be successful when Joan was around.
6. During her time in prison, Joan tried to escape by jumping out of a 70 foot tower, but she was re-captured and moved to another prison.
7. Despite being an illiterate peasant, the wisdom of her answers during her trial had the court astonished. For example, asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.' If she had answered yes to this question, then she would have been guilty of heresy, for church doctrine stated that no-one could be sure of God's grace. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. It was a trap, and she dealt with it perfectly.
8. Not that it did her any good. She was still found guilty and sentenced to be burned to death at the stake. In fact, she was burned three times - once to kill her and twice more to stop people taking bits of her body as relics. Her ashes were eventually thrown in the river Seine.
9. She was tried twice. After the war was over, Pope Callixtus III authorised a re-trial at the request of Inquisitor-General Jean Bréhal and Joan's mother Isabelle Romée. They believed the first trial was illegal for a number of reasons, and had been political rather than religious, an excuse to get rid of Joan. One of the objections was that, although cross-dressing was a crime, the church would allow a woman to dress as a man in order to protect herself against rape, so in Joan's case, it would have been permissible. This second trial found her innocent.
10. Joan of Arc is the patron of France, martyrs, people ridiculed for their piety, prisoners, soldiers, women who have served in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), and Women's Army Corps.