(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Joan of Arc was born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on January 6,
1412. She died at Rouen on May 30, 1431. The village of Domremy lay
upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the
Duke of Burgundy, but in the protracted conflict between the Armagnacs
(the party of Charles VII, King of France), on the one hand, and the
Burgundians in alliance with the English, on the other, Domremy had
always remained loyal to Charles.
Jacques d’Arc,
Joan’s father, was a small peasant farmer, poor but not needy. Joan
seems to have been the youngest of a family of five. She never learned
to read or write but was skilled in sewing and spinning. The popular
idea that she spent the days of her childhood in the pastures, alone
with the sheep and cattle, is quite unfounded. All the witnesses in the
process of rehabilitation spoke of her as a singularly pious child,
grave beyond her years, who often knelt in the church absorbed in
prayer, and loved the poor tenderly. Great attempts were made at Joan’s
trial to connect her with some superstitious practices supposed to have
been performed round a certain tree, popularly known as the “Fairy
Tree” (l’Arbre des Dames),
but the sincerity of her answers baffled her judges. She had sung and
danced there with the other children, and had woven wreaths for Our
Lady’s statue, but since she was twelve years old she had “held aloof
from such diversions.”
It was at the age of
thirteen and a half, in the summer of 1425, that Joan first became
conscious of her life purpose by hearing “voices.” She later came to
call them her “counsel.” It was at first simply a voice, as if someone
had spoken quite close to her, but it seems also clear that a blaze of
light accompanied it. Later on, she clearly discerned in some way the
appearance of those who spoke to her, recognizing them individually as
St. Michael (who was accompanied by other angels), St. Margaret, St.
Catherine, and others. Joan was always reluctant to speak of her
voices. She said nothing about them to her confessor, and constantly
refused, at her trial, to be inveigled into descriptions of the
appearance of the saints and to explain how she recognized them. None
the less, she told her judges, “I saw them with these very eyes, as
well as I see you.”
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, condemned as a witch, but her legend lives on and inspires many.