Saint Joan of Arc Heavenly voices
Sister Marie-Bernard
This article continues the story of Saint Joan of Arc. You can read the previous article about her childhood here.
One summer day in Joan’s thirteenth year, when she was turning soil in her father’s garden, she was suddenly enveloped in a bright light. Looking up she saw the brilliant form of Saint Michael the Archangel. He told her to be a good child and to say her prayers, and that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret would come to give her guidance and help. When he left her, Joan wept, for she was left with a great desire to go with him.
As he had promised, a short time later her two supernatural counselors, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, appeared to her. For three years she kept silence about what she later referred to as her “Voices.” Not only did she hear three Saints in conversation but she saw their faces and persons, and kissed the ground they stood on. Though these heavenly friends visited not two or three times a week, not even her mother or confessor, was told a word about them. To all outward appearances, Joan remained the same. There was no change in her character or manners. She carried on her chores as diligently and cheerfully as before, never giving any hint of the great favors that were being bestowed on her.
“go into France” to “raise the siege of Orleans” and to “crown the Dauphin.”
Gradually these heavenly visitors revealed the mission that God had ordained for her. She was to “go into France” to “raise the siege of Orleans” and to “crown the Dauphin.” Clinging to the knees of the Saints she pleaded with tears that she was just a simple girl with no skill and wholly unfitted by both nature and training for such a task. She had no experience in riding and no knowledge of battle or military training, yet her Voices insisted, “Go, they need you, “To Robert de Baudricourt, Captain of Vaucouleurs. He will furnish you with an escort to accompany you to the Dauphin.”
By the beginning of her sixteenth year the Voices became insistent and begged Joan not to delay. Under her guise of visiting her uncle’s family, she obtained permission from her parents to go to Vaucouleurs, a larger city lying just north of Domremy. Her first interview with the rough captain took place on Ascension Day, 1428. The meeting was arranged by her uncle who was told by the captain to “take her home and box her ears.” The meeting was uneventful. Joan returned home a little disappointed but not at all discouraged. Her father threatened that if she should try to do such a disgraceful thing again, he would drown her with his own hands. Yet throughout the summer and fall the Voices kept pressing her urgently to get on with her mission, “Go, daughter of God, go!” which increased the agony she bore until God saw fit to answer her prayers.
January came, and after much thought and prayer, she turned away from her family, her home, and all that she held dear, and headed north once again. “Nothing could have made me leave my home except a call from God,” she said, “ and once I was sure of that call, nothing could keep me home, not even one hundred mothers and fathers!” So, a second time she started for Vaucouleurs, determined not to leave Baudricourt until she had an escort to the Dauphin in Chinon.
The Mission is Begun
Joan cut her hair and disguised herself as a page boy. Then, for the first time in her life, she mounted a horse for a ride of four hundred miles. The journey of eleven days, in the cold dampness of February, through land infested with robbers, was a difficult one for even the most experienced soldier. But now much worse it must have been for a seventeen-year-old girl, away from her family for the first time, thrown in with seven rough soldiers, and with no knowledge of horses or riding!
The gates of Chinon opened to the little escort on March 6, 1429. Robert de Baudricourt had sent word to the Dauphin informing him of Joan’s coming, yet for two days after her arrival, he procrastinated about the meeting. On March 8, he finally sent for her. Having his court assembled, the Dauphin, partly out of mischief and partly to test her mission, hid among the crowd of nobles, and bid another take his place. Joan entered. An attractive young girl in doublet, hose, gaiters and spurred boots, with a sword at her side, crossed for the first time into the glamour and sparkle of a royal banquet hall. It was enough to stun any ordinary peasant, but Joan, whose friends shone with the brilliance of the heavenly court, the light of earthly splendor made little or no impression. She studied the man on the throne and the other numerous faces, then strode through the crowd and dropped to her knees before the Dauphin. “God give you life, noble Dauphin,” she exclaimed, and kissed his hand. “Charles stood in awe and the crowd protested that she had mistaken his identity. But Joan insisted in her opinion saying, “I am Joan the Maid, I am sent by God to regain for you the kingdom which is yours and to make war on those English. Why do you not believe me? I tell you the truth when I say that God has pity on you and on your people.”
To confirm her words, she took the Dauphin aside and whispered a secret told to her by her Voices. Immediately Charles understood that she was sent by God, and believed her. But as to her mission, he had her first subjected to an extensive examination by ecclesiastics. For many days she was questioned about her family, upbringing, home, Vices and mission. It was a thorough examination from beginning to end. Finally her judges declared that they had “found in the Maid nothing but what is good.”