A Sudden Burst of Joy

On January 6, 1412, Archbishop Debout wrote that the residents of Domrémy, France, went home after attending the services of the great feast of the Epiphany. Suddenly, in every home, for no apparent reason for it to take place, a burst of joy permeated people's hearts. Startled, the villagers wondered what was happening, opened their doors and stood on the threshold of their cottages, looking up to the sky. Their efforts were in vain: nothing in the sky explained why they all felt such happiness. And then even animals that cannot reason began to share the exuberance: roosters flapped their wings and went cock-a-doodle-doo for two hours. What was going on? Joan of Arc was born. She was the divine answer to the supplications that kings and the people had been making for a century. "I came to the King of France from the Blessed Virgin Mary," Joan said to her judges. Her childhood home is a rustic shrine outside Domrémy: Our Lady of Bermont.