I came to the king from the Blessed Virgin Mary

French heroine Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431) led a war of liberation to free her country from the English invader in the 15th century. Responding to a divine call, she helped Charles VII become King of France. She paid a high price for it, as she was burned at the stake in Rouen (northern France) in 1431. Here is what a historian, Bishop Henri Debout (1857-1936), wrote about the day of her birth in Lorraine:

On January 6, 1412, the inhabitants of Domrémy, the small village of eastern France where Saint Joan of Arc grew up, were returning home after attending Mass for the beautiful feast of the Epiphany. Suddenly and inexplicably, in every home a breath of joy penetrated all hearts. Perplexed, the good villagers stood at their doors and came out of their cottages to examine the sky for an explanation, but could not find the cause of this general excitement. The animals too experienced this euphoria – the roosters fluttered their wings and for two hours made long crowing sounds. What was happening?

Joan of Arc was being born! She was God’s answer to the supplications that kings and peoples had been raising up to Heaven for a whole century!

"I came to the King of France from the Blessed Virgin Mary," she told her judges. To this day the place of the delights of her childhood is a rustic local shrine called Our Lady of Bermont, near Domrémy.

Marquis de la Franquerie

Adapted from Our Lady in the History of France (La Vierge Marie dans l’Histoire de France)