St. Joan of Arc – Patron Saint of Military Service

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried-Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life” (Revelation, Ch. 2, v. 10.)

The Biography of St. Joan of Arc – a Truly Incredible Saint and Patron Saint of Military Service

If the saints can be rightly classified as unusual human beings, then a nineteen year old girl of fifteenth century France called Saint Joan of Arc, can justly be termed unique among the Communion of Saints, for Joan of Lorraine, the patron saint of France, is one of the most controversial figures the Christian world has ever known. She was burned at the stake as a heretic and yet years later exonerated and proclaimed a saint of the Church. St. Joan of Arc patron saint of military service, pray for us!

Her life was a very simple one at first, and yet when her mission of patriotism began, it became so involved with so many people, and so many battles that countless books have been written studying her life, her work, her trial and her death. The complicated political elements encompassed in her career, and the mixture of ecclesiastical with political factors, have become the subjects of myriads of books and articles. Poet and playwright, artist and historian, have all glorified in the dramatic story of the warrior-girl burned as a witch.

By reflecting on the life of St. Joan of Arc, the peasant patriot girl of France, we discover the lessons to be learned now in the great example she has set for the modern Catholic woman, the historical example of love of God and Country, together with a Christ-like interest in one’s government. 

The Setting of St. Joan of Arc’s Life

In the year, 1412, when Saint Joan of Arc was born at Domremy on the Feast of the Epiphany, a large part of France had already fallen to the English Crown, which was still Catholic at the time, and the entire country of France was claimed by the English. The so-called rightful heir to the French throne, the Dauphin Charles, had been declared illegitimate by his own mother. He was a very weakened creature who commanded very little support among his followers concerning his rightful claims to the crown of France. The Duke of Burgundy, with his powerful allies, had reasonably adhered to the English cause, thereby making matters worse for the Dauphin and for all of France.

Though a type of resistance continued, almost a token opposition, to the English, it appeared to be only a matter of time before this weakened opposition would collapse. It was only the miraculous appearance of Joan of Lorraine upon the scene, an angel in white armor, that saved France from the English, and undoubtedly the fate of the following century when the English turned from the Roman Catholic Church.

Joan of Arc, An Ordinary Girl Destined to Change the World

Joan had one sister and three brothers. As soon as she was able to work, like every other child, she was set to help in the house which was similar to the homes of all the other peasant people in the province of Lorraine, and the little village of Domremy. She used to drive the village cows out to pasture and occasionally would act as a shepherdess. In brief, she was an ordinary peasant girl, which everybody, including herself, thought she would remain, perhaps one who would marry later and raise a family similar to her own.

Then one day, while in the garden of her father’s house, she heard a voice calling her by name from the village church. A vision appeared, clothed in light and said that he was St. Michael the Archangel. The vision informed her that he would send St. Margaret and St. Catherine of Alexandria and that she was not to be at all alarmed. Her heavenly visitors first of all instructed her to continue being a good girl and to say her prayers fervently. There was no hint at the outset of these visitations that she would later be called upon to save France. 

These visitations continued until Joan was about seventeen years of age and she kept them entirely to herself. She also kept secret the fact that she had taken a private vow of virginity which would continue as long as it should please God. Then finally the young maid was informed by her heavenly visitors that she was to go to the wars and seek out the Dauphin of France. When she informed her family, her father became violently angry, and tried to stop what he deemed an insane venture by trying to get Joan married. He did not succeed.

Establishing Herself as a Political Confidant and Leader

Joan went to the nearest royal stronghold at Vaucouleurs, and appealed to Baudricourt the governor, a rough and coarse soldier who received the young enthusiastic girl with the kind of jest he deemed appropriate. 

To convince the Governor, Joan told Baudricourt and the Duke of Lorraine about an English victory that has occurred many miles away that had not yet been completed. When the news of the English victory was later verified, her prophetic knowledge had them gasping. They were so impressed with the girl that they acceded to her request that she be allowed to wear male attire and they sent her to the Dauphin at Chinon under escort. It was a long and dangerous journey and they constantly had to dodge enemy soldiers. It was even more dangerous for young Joan who is described as an innocent girl, travelling with a group of rough men, even sleeping with them on the bare ground at night. They held her apart, however, as someone sacred. 

When they finally reached Chinon, the Dauphin and his court regarded this young peasant girl, dressed as a man, and one who heard heavenly voices, as something comical and they sought to trick her. They decided to submit her to a test, and she was ushered into a great Hall where all the nobility were gathered. 

The Dauphin, himself, stood apart, dressed in no outstanding fashion mingling with the others. Although she had never seen the Dauphin Charles before, she immediately went to him, knelt and paid him homage. When he persisted in denying who he was, Joan was not to be deceived. She took him aside and told him something known only to himself, which amazed him. The Dauphin was convinced of her strange powers, but he had her questioned by the priest at Poitiers, for there was already some suspicion that Joan was a witch. She was asked by a scholar, with a strong local accent, if St. Michael spoke to her in French. She replied quite candidly, as she did thereafter to her examiners in her trial: “Yes, and in better French than yours”. 

The White Clad Warrior of Christ

Finally, on April 22, 1429, this young farm girl, scarcely more than seventeen years of age, left Blois to march upon Orleans, clad in white armor, with her hair cut short, and bearing a banner with the words “Jesus, Maria”, inscribed upon it with other emblems of God and of French royalty. She had no knowledge of military tactics, and when she left Chinon she had no personal command of any forces except her own personal guard. 

Very shortly, however, St. Joan of Arc established her authority over the entire force of soldiers and whenever the generals gave orders, of which she disapproved, she never hesitated to countermand those orders. Finally, all the solders became her firm supporters. She entered Orleans without opposition, raised the seige, and defeated the English by electrifying the defenders and turning them into attackers. 

Under her leadership city after city was freed but they bypassed Paris, perhaps because it was Joan’s inspired wish to have the Dauphin Charles VII crowned as soon as possible. The Coronation took place at Rheims on July 17, 1429, with Joan proudly standing behind the new monarch bearing her banner. Her mission, however, was only half over, for France was still in the hands of the English.

Joan did not receive the continued support she had anticipated from the irresolute monarch and reverses began to set in. She spent that winter at Court during a period of truce and she was regarded by all with suspicion. The following Spring brought the climax with their unsuccessful attempt to lift the siege at Compiegne. Joan was captured and imprisoned from Spring until the late Autumn of 1430 by the Duke of Burgundy. No attempt was made by King Charles or his ministers to secure her release and she was abandoned to her fate. 

Handed Over to the English and Put to Trial

The English wanted Joan, and on November 21, 1430 the Duke of Burgundy delivered her into English hands. The English knew that they could not take her life for defeating them in any battle, but they could have her condemned as a heretic, or even a witch in an age when belief in witchcraft was rampant. On Christmas day Joan found herself chained to a plank bed in a cell at the castle of Rouen, and on February 21, 1431, she appeared for the first time before the Court of the Inquisition. 

The Trial of St. Joan of Arc

The now infamous Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, presided over the trial. Apparently he hoped through English influence to become Archbishop of Rouen. The infamous, trial consisted of six public and nine private sessions during which Joan was questioned again and again, about her voices, her male attire, her willingness to submit to the Church, and her Faith in God, and it covered a period of ten weeks. The girl bore herself bravely and piously but through her ignorance of theological terminology she was betrayed into making damaging statements.

The Tribunal finally voted to hand Joan over to the secular arm for burning if she still refused to acknowledge that her voices had been an illusion and that she was a witch. She continued to refuse although threatened with torture. Only when she heard the public condemnation sentencing her to the flames did she weaken and recant. Later, however, when Cauchon and others visited her in her cell, she disavowed this weakness. Once more, she insisted that her voices truly came from God and that God had truly sent her. Finally, the judges, upon hearing this report condemned her on May 29, 1431. The following morning, she was led out into the marketplace at Rouen to be publicly burned as a heretic.

The Martyrdom of St. Joan of Arc

As the prisoners at her feet were ignited she asked a Dominican friar to raise a cross before her eyes, and as the flames rose higher she cried out the name of “Jesus”. One of King Henry’s secretaries in the hushed and horrified mob cried out “We are lost! We have burned a saint!”

Twenty-five years after that fateful day when Joan’s ashes had been cast into the River Seine, she was being hailed as the Savior of France. After new depositions were made she was formally rehabilitated as a true daughter of the Church by the Holy Father, and her trial was pronounced to have been completely irregular. Joan of Arc was beatified in the year 1909 and she was raised to sainthood in 1919. She has been declared by the Holy See as the Patron Saint of France and she is regarded without a doubt as that country’s and one of the world’s greatest patriots.

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Reflection on the Life of St. Joan of Arc

Of all the saints, from every nation, every age, and of life, St. Joan of Arc is one of the most remarkableapproached the term “martyrdom”. In her own mind she was executed for her love of God and because she would not deny her heavenly voices. She died with an intense love for her country. In the minds of those who executed her, she was killed for being a heretic, in the days when the civil arm executed one for being opposed to Church doctrine and Ecclesiastical authority. But whatever God’s plan was in Joan’s career and her death, the fact remains that centuries and papal approbation have shown that she is a saint who possessed great love of God, together with a burning love of France and a unique patriotic desire for her political liberty.

St. Joan of Arc Paton Saint of Governments, Politicians, and Patriotism

Joan of Arc, therefore, becomes for the modern woman, an outstanding example of combined love of God and love of country, a beacon of true patriotism, and women’s participation in the field of government and politics. She teaches the modern woman, and particularly the modern Catholic woman, that she cannot tolerate the idea of letting things in our civic life constantly take their own course, for this usually results in futility and hopelessness.

If Joan of Arc had let things take their own course and had not risen up to inspire the French troops or to have the Dauphin Charles crowned King at such a crucial time, what would have happened to France, and eventually what would have been the fate of the Roman Catholic religion in France a century or so later, during the great Protestant Revolt?

Joan of Arc is a Model of a Christian Citizen

The term “patriotism”, in many ways is difficult to define, but essentially it means love of one’s country. Every Catholic, as any clear-thinking person knows, is aware of the fact that this means much more than “flag waving”, singing the national anthem or placing a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day. For every Catholic, love of country comes next to love of God as the patriotic history of Catholicism in America will attest.

It means being a good citizen in every sense of the word and fulfilling honestly one’s civic responsibilities. Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical “Christian Education of Youth” said: “Indeed a good Catholic, precisely because of his Catholic principles, makes the better citizen, attached to his country and loyally submissive to constituted civil authority in every legitimate form of government.” 

As a modern Catholic, in your quest for true patriotism must become keenly aware of a few essential facts if you hopes to fulfill this vital responsibility in its full measure for your own spiritual welfare and the well-being of your community. You should be cognizant of the fact that the teachings of Christ are not destined merely to be learned and reviewed or become the subject matter of a Sunday sermon. They must be translated into everyday living. You must be aware at all times that by word and example Christ’s teachings must be brought into the market place fulfilling the logical sequence of Christ’s command: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”. (Matthew, Ch. 22, v. 21.)

Patriotism, as a virtue, is a part of the virtue of justice. It may be called social justice or legal justice. It requires us to acknowledge the great benefits we derive from society by accepting our share of the lawful burdens that society imposes upon us and by rendering to that society the service it expects of us. Since the commonwealth or the government takes precedence over the individual welfare, there are times when citizens must sacrifice part of their goods, their freedom, and even endanger their lives in defense of their country, as St. Joan of Arc did in the fifteenth century.

In such national crises brave men and women have rendered and will continue to render a very important auxiliary help in the call to arms. This patriotism and love of country is manifested today by many young people of the Catholic Faith who follow a career in the various Branches of the Military Service, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.

St. Joan of Arc Patron Saint of Women in the Armed Forces

So many of these women and men of every Faith deserve great praise from their fellow citizens, with whom they serve as members of the medical profession, in the field of nursing or in administrative military employment. Indeed they acquitted themselves with outstanding bravery in the last great World War and are continuing to do so in many areas even today.

The Catholic service woman, especially if she is in such an authoritative position, can certainly find her counterpart in another military woman, Saint Joan of Arc, the Saint of Lorraine. For such women in the armed forces, St. Joan of Arc must be a special standard bearer and guide, not only in her courage and sacrifice, but in the innate modesty and reserve she displayed while working with men, some of them hardened by continued years of military service.

Such Catholic women in uniform can command the same respect from the men in arms if they strive honestly to emulate the modesty and virtue of their saintly military predecessor in their speech, behavior and daily work—if they refrain from questionable associations which unfortunately sometimes arise in the military way of life, if they come to know and are in frequent contact with their Catholic Chaplain, and if they practice their God-given Faith in every aspect.

Civilian Citizenship Today

Apart from this special area of active military service, every Catholic, with the gift of citizenship, must realize that true patriotism means more than fighting in a just war at a time of national crisis. It means taking an intelligent interest in civic affairs, in the current political issues and problems, and the qualifications of various candidates for public office. It means paying one’s taxes and giving the proper obedience to the properly constituted public authorities who represent the society in which they live. It means voting intelligently, and according to one’s conscience to see that the best man is elected to public office. It means having a knowledge of our country in its origins, its hopes and aspirations, its heroes and its history, for ignorance of these things cannot engender true patriotism.

This true patriotism, for the Catholic of today, must have as its starting point, the realization that Catholics are not “second-class citizens”, but can and should strive for public office, and serve their country as their predecessors have done so nobly in times of stress and times of peace. It directs the individual possessing a true love of country to make this devotion contagious.

As Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston phrased this same idea: “The true patriot seeks to foster patriotism in others by as many ways as possible. He is proud of his own personal or professional contributions to the national good, its development and defense, but he applauds the contributions of others who serve in different ways but with equal patriotism.”

How to Immolate the Holy Example of St. Joan of Arc in Your Own Life

Finally, true patriotism embraces a firm understanding of the truth that the cornerstone of our freedom and our American way of life rests upon a very strong spiritual bedrock. George Washington reminded us of this fact in his Farewell Address in 1796: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports… Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”

Catholics of this era must translate a realization of these ideals into action by a keen interest and participation in politics on a federal, state, and community level. Unfortunately, many are content to let others do their thinking for them and their voting for them as well. The further question might be asked, does the modern Catholic seek to avail oneself of the many important positions in the field of state or federal administration, for which one is more than qualified in so many cases, or is she content to let others seek and fill these positions because she feels that the word “politics” is evil?

Engaging in Politics as a Catholic

In our day, more than ever before, Catholics must remember that the term “politics” is not a wicked word, for just as citizenship is the basis of patriotism, politics is the machinery of citizenship. We are all, from every creed and every walk of life should take places intelligently and unselfishly within its organization, accepting in a full degree the duties and obligations of citizenship.

Henry Adams once said, no doubt with tongue-in-cheek: “Practical politics consists in boring facts.” Unfortunately many people today feel precisely that way. The true patriot, however, cannot share this sentiment, but must realize full that politics needs a spiritual elevation out of its current context which tends to be almost temporal exclusively, and must be shown in its true purpose as a science which must serve human beings whose destiny is God.

American’s of today, the Catholic today especially, must not ignore facts in politics or in any other field of activity, but must help personally and individually refashion the link which binds politics to a higher order. Pope Pius XII, addressing the Congress of the International Union of Catholic Women’s League, gave an excellent bit of advice for the modern Catholic woman who seeks fully to exercise her influence of Catholic patriotism and concern for the government under which she lives.

He said: “There remains to be considered the domain of political life… Your own role is, in general, to work towards making women always more conscious of her sacred rights, of her duties, and of her power to help mould public opinion, through her daily contacts, and to influence legislation and administration, by the proper use of her prerogatives as a citizen. Such is your common role.”

This common role may be exercised not only through action but through prayer as well, since all our important activities must be guided by prayer.

How to Follow St. Joan of Arc’s Example of Civic Engagement

One beautiful prayer which breathes the love of country is found in the Liturgy of Good Friday and might be said frequently in our time of world rest. It reads: “Almighty, Everlasting God, in Whose hand lie all government and the rights of every nation, look graciously upon our rulers, so that all over the world religion and public safety may stand whole and unimpaired under the shelter of Thy hand; through Christ Our Lord, Amen.”

Such a prayerful attitude then, and such an active participation constitutes real patriotism, one that truly combines love of God and love of country. It will be, for the modern Catholic, at home, in government, or the armed forces, the type of patriotism that helped the Maid of Orleans in her century save her nation and her own soul. It is the kind of patriotism that will help us in our time save our nation and our immortal souls for eternal citizenship in the kingdom of God.

PRAYER TO ST. JOAN OF ARC:

O Christ the King, Ruler of the Universe, through the intercession of Thy blessed soldier Joan, grant us the spirit and strength to spread Thy kingdom upon earth, and the wisdom to know what we must render to our earthly rulers in Thy name. As Thou didst inspire Thy servant Joan, guide them in their government and save us from all peril; Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.