Elija Mission

I am delighted for—and with—everyone who followed the twelve reflections on the Blessed Virgin of Orléans. This is not the first time I have written about her, and—God willing—it will not be the last. Indeed, every time I write about her, it feels fresh, which is connected to the fact that the Virgin of Orléans was a believer who carried out a mission from God. One can never understand this enough. I invite everyone, as they see fit, to look at my earlier publications and listen to the radio play created in her honor:

• Conference “Jeanne d’Arc and our times”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CAUejmfh0E

• Radio play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVKE6WCNZ3g

The title of this series on Joan makes clear what my intention was. I wanted to honor the Maid, who suffered a terrible death by public burning at the stake for her mission. Unfortunately, this is often poorly understood in depictions of her, and even less understood is the fact that glory is due first to God, who intervened in the history of France through her and accomplished this work with her help. If we forget this or allow it to fade too far into the background, then we fail to grasp the essential point and remain trapped in a merely human perspective when considering the events surrounding Joan of Arc.

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What had happened to the heroic Joan of Arc, who had endured so many trials and never doubted her mission?

Let us think of Saint Peter. Did he not repeatedly show Jesus his love? Did he not leave everything to follow Jesus? Did he not say that he was willing to die for Jesus? What happened then? We know the answer. In the hour of danger, he denied Jesus and bitterly regretted it afterward.

What about Joan of Arc?

A few days after her recantation, Bishop Cauchon came to Joan’s prison with a few companions. He asked her if she had heard the voices since Thursday, the day she recanted.

Joan answered in the affirmative and said:

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Joan withstood the terrible ordeal of interrogation, the harassment she endured at the hands of the English guards, the harsh conditions of her imprisonment, and the judges’ attempts to convict her of heresy. Not even the threat of torture caused her to falter. Supported by her saints, she remained unyielding. She told those who threatened her with torture: “Truly, even if you were to break my limbs and sever my soul from my body, I could say nothing else to you. If you force me to speak, I will say that you made me speak by force.”

As the pressure mounted, she heard all the charges brought against her and was repeatedly ordered to submit to the judgment of the Church. She appealed to God and said she should be taken to the Pope.

Joan testified: “I asked my voices for advice on whether I should submit to the Church because the clergy were pressing me fiercely. They answered that if I wanted our Lord to help me, I should entrust myself to Him in everything.”

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In Rouen, the conditions of the Virgin’s imprisonment worsened. Although she should have been held in a church prison under the supervision of women, English soldiers guarded her instead.

The priest Jean Massieu of Rouen described her conditions of imprisonment as follows:

“Joan was imprisoned in the citadel of Rouen in a room on the middle floor of the tower, accessible via eight flights of stairs. There was a bed where she slept, as well as a large wooden block to which an iron chain was attached and used to shackle her. Her feet were shackled. She was chained to a lock mounted on the wooden block. Five despicable Englishmen were assigned to guard her. They desperately wanted Joan dead and mocked her incessantly.”

During the trial, Joan repeatedly complained about this and held Bishop Cauchon responsible. She also often had to defend herself against the assaults of her guards, especially at night.

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After her capture, it became clear what the English intended to do with her. Joan was not merely a prominent prisoner; with her, English military dominance in France had come to an end. They therefore believed they knew what had caused their defeats. In their view, a witch—and thus a woman influenced by the devil—had brought about this turn of events to their disadvantage.

With Joan’s setback in Paris, as it was widely interpreted, the aura of invincibility surrounding the Virgin was lost in the eyes of her opponents. Her capture before Compiègne confirmed this further. The Burgundians handed Joan over to the English king in exchange for a substantial sum of money. What Joan had feared came to pass. She was now in the hands of her enemies.

It quickly became clear how the English intended to proceed. Treating her as a prisoner of war was not enough for them; she was to be tried as a witch by an ecclesiastical court. Their aim was to undermine the authority of the French king. If the Church condemned the Maid as a witch and heretic, all her deeds, including the king’s coronation and the French victories, would be seen as having been accomplished with the devil’s help. They worked toward this goal.

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After Charles VII was crowned in Reims, the king began negotiating with the Burgundians. On the day of the coronation itself, Joan wrote to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, on behalf of Charles VII. She pleaded with him in the name of God: “May the King of France and you conclude a good and lasting peace that will endure for a long time. Forgive one another completely with sincere hearts as faithful Christians.”

She was serious about achieving true peace, even as she simultaneously warned the duke against taking up arms against the king. She sought Christian reconciliation and hoped to help unite the French, for after the devastating French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), the Burgundians had allied themselves with the English. An Anglo-Burgundian alliance was formed.

In her letter to the Duke of Burgundy, Jeanne’s God-given authority was evident once again. She wanted to make a good and lasting peace, founded on their shared faith. However, she was also aware of the strength of the French army, which had gained the upper hand in the war through her intervention. This would have been the negotiating position needed to continue the work God had begun through her. The victory over the English and the subsequent coronation of Charles VII were signs that everyone could have read to draw the right conclusions.

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After the city of Orléans had been relieved of its siege, Joan felt compelled to fulfill her next prophecy: to lead the king to Reims for his coronation. She knew from her visions that she did not have much time to complete her mission, and she had to seize the moment. The English were weakened, while the French soldiers were encouraged.

The Count of Dunois reports:

After the liberation of Orléans, we—the Maid, myself, and others—went together to the king, who was at the castle of Loches, to request new troops from him for the recapture of the fortresses and towns along the Loire, especially Meung, Beaugency, and Jargeau, so that he might operate more safely and undisturbed in the future all the way to Reims for his coronation. Joan implored the king, urging him tirelessly to act quickly and warning him against hesitation. From that moment on, the king acted with all possible haste and dispatched the Duke of Alençon, other military commanders, and me—together with Joan—to capture those towns and castles. And indeed, they were once again brought under the king’s rule—through Joan’s help, I believe.

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