The Story of Joan of Arc, Whose Catholic Feast Day in 2017 Is Tuesday, May 30

[mdgspencer]

see osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Story/TabId/2672/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/17778/Joan-of-Arc.aspx

“It is one of the most amazing occurrences in history. It shows God’s intervention in the history of a nation through the instrument of an illiterate and uneducated peasant girl of France, St. Joan of Arc.”

This unknown peasant girl was raised up by God to war on and win against foreign invaders who were seizing control of her country.

God began acting when she was 12. "Born around 1412, Joan was a devout child, more so than any of her playmates. But one day when she was about 12 years old, everything changed when she saw a bright light and heard a voice coming out of the air saying: ‘Be a good girl, great things are expected of you.’

When she heard the voice a third time, she realized that it was St. Michael the Archangel."

in 1920 the Catholic Church canonized her as a saint in St. Peter’s Basilica.

 

[steve93]

The Church should lead a crusade against the invaders under a banner of Joan. The six counties, the rock of Gibraltar, and the Latin American islands will again be under legitimate rule.

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

A secular Franciscan.

St Joan, pray for us.

 

[ColdComfort]

I have to admit that the story of St. Joan has always baffled me. Perhaps God had a purpose in raising Joan up, in fact I’m sure He did, but it’s impossible for me to say why God would prefer the French dynasty over the English one.

I will say that the meaning of Joan’s life is that she followed her calling from God even to a horrible death. All those she helped abandoned her to her fate.

 

[mdgspencer]

That is a good question–why did God clearly help the French during this war? Likely, the reasons are mainly ones we never thought of, or couldn’t know. One possibility–if France had been part of the English realm, Henry VIII and his successors would have annihilated the Catholic Church in France just as he did in England in the 1500s.

I have to admit that the story of St. Joan has always baffled me. Perhaps God had a purpose in raising Joan up, in fact I’m sure He did, but it’s impossible for me to say why God would prefer the French dynasty over the English one.