``Where
the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
The Feast of St. Joan of Arc
Jeanne d'Arc --
Joan of Arc to us in the Anglosphere -- was born in
1412 -- likely on the Feast of the
Epiphany. The town in which she was born was
then known as the city of Domrémy in the province of Lorraine, on the
far East side of France near the border of Germany. To find these
places now,
you must know that Domrémy has been renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle in her
honor ("pucelle" means "virgin maid"), and the province of Lorraine
has been subsumed into a region called Grand Est in the department of
Vosges. But we get ahead of ourselves...
When Joan was born, the Hundred Years War -- which actually lasted for
116 years -- had been raging for seventy-five years. This war was, in
essence, the English royal family (the Plantagenets) and their
relatives in Burgundy struggling with the French
royal family (the Valois) over who should control the French
throne -- the English laying their claim because their royalty
descended from William the Conqueror, a Norman who invaded England and
won at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (this is "the Norman Conquest" of
England).
Indeed, though this war was interspersed with periodic truces, England
-- known
to the Church as "Our Lady's Dowry" -- and France -- known to the
Church as "the Eldest Daughter of the Church" -- were in a bloody
conflict, and France had internal struggles over
who should sit on the French throne.
Joan's father, Jacques, was a farmer -- but one with property, about 50
acres worth. Joan helped him with his animals, and spun their wool. Her
mother, Isabelle, taught Joan and Joan's four siblings the Faith,
ensuring
that Joan grew to be
a very pious girl. One lovely little detail that comes down through
history to us is that Joan and her friends would go play around a
great
ancient beech tree known as "the Fairies' Tree" or the "Ladies' Tree"
and weave floral garlands for the Blessed Virgin.
When Joan was around 13 years of age, in 1425, the martial goings-on
came to her own village: the English plundered the place, stealing the
town's cattle. It was that same year that Joan had her first vision, a
meeting
with St. Michael the
Archangel, accompanied by a host of angels. The transcripts of her
trial tell us she said,
The first time
that I heard this Voice, I was very much frightened; it was mid-day, in
the summer, in my father's garden. I had not fasted the day before. I
heard this Voice to my right, towards the Church; rarely do I hear it
without its being accompanied also by a light. This light comes from
the same side as the Voice. Generally it is a great light.
When asked if she literally
saw St. Michael and a host of angels, she replied,
I saw them with
my bodily eyes as well as I
see you; and when they left me, I wept; and I fain would have had them
take me with them too.
The Saints told her that she will drive out the English and see the
rightful king enthroned, all in accordance with very old prophecies --
attributed to the likes of the sibyls and
the mythical Merlin -- that an armed, virgin
maiden would one day save France. To accomplish this, they instructed
her to go to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the royal garrison in
the town of Vaucouleurs, and ask to be taken to see the Dauphin (the
oldest son of France's king) in the city of Chinon. In 1428, she did,
accompanied by her uncle, but Baudricourt sent her home, telling her
escort, "Take her home to her father and give her a good whipping." A
year later she returned, but again she was refused. A month after the
second visit, she
tried once more, and this time, having gained the support of two of
Baudricourt's men, and after France's situation having grown more
bleak, she got her wish. She was given an escort of six men, and with
them -- after having cropped her hair and, at the command of her
Voices, while dressed in men's clothing of black doublet, black
tunic, and black cap -- she went to see the man she hoped would be the
future king.
She describes her meeting with him like this:
I got there
towards mid-day, and lodged first at an inn. After dinner, I went to
the King [then Dauphin], who was at the Castle. When I entered the room
where he was I recognized him among many others by the counsel of my
Voice, which revealed him to me. I told him that I wished to go and
make war on the English.
She and the Dauphin spoke at length, and she impressed him greatly. He,
too, knew of the prophecies that a virgin maid would save France -- but
he wanted to be sure that Joan was maid predicted. So he had women
examine her to ensure her virginity. Then, as the transcripts of her
trial relate, "for three weeks she was examined by the clergy, at
Chinon and Poitiers; and her king had a sign touching of her mission
before he believed in her. The clergy of her party held that there was
nothing but good in her mission." What this "sign" was is never
revealed, but it's commonly believed that it centered on the Dauphin's
secret doubts about the legitimacy of his birth -- doubts which Joan
put to rest by the counsel of her heavenly visitors.
Finally convinced of the truth of her visions, the Dauphin had armor
made for her, but she refused his gift of a sword. Instead, the
transcripts tell us that Joan said
that when she
was at Tours or Chinon she sent for a sword which was in the church of
Ste. Catherine de Fierbois, behind the altar; and immediately it was
found there all rusted over.
Asked how she knew that this sword was there, she answered
that the sword was in the ground, rusted over, and upon it were five
crosses; and she knew it was there through her voices, and she had
never seen the man who fetched it. She wrote to the clergy of the place
asking if it was their pleasure that she should have the sword, and
they sent it to her. Nor was it buried deep behind the altar, but she
believed she wrote saying it was behind. She added that as soon as the
sword was found the priests rubbed it, and the rust fell off at once
without effort; a merchant, an armorer of Tours, fetched it. The local
priests gave her a scabbard, as did those of Tours also; they made two
in all, one of crimson velvet, in French "de velous vermeil", and the
other of cloth of gold. She herself had another made of very strong
leather.
Then she received her standard: a white flag sprinkled with lilies,
adorned with the words "Jesus, Maria," and with a kneeling angel on
each side.
She was ready for battle. Before she left, she must have spoken to a
man named Sire de Rotslaer, a Flemish diplomat: on the 22nd of April of
that year (1429), he wrote a letter to Belgium, a letter that still
exists today. In it, he indicated that Joan had said
that she would
save Orléans and would compel the English to raise the siege, that she
herself in a battle before Orléans would be wounded by a shaft but
would not die of it, and that the King, in the course of the coming
summer, would be crowned at Reims, together with other things which the
King keeps secret.
All of these things came true: On the 29th of April, she entered Orléans and was
greeted with great enthusiasm, easily winning
the support of the troops there. She inspired them to act with courage
such that on May 4, they went on the offensive, capturing the English
forts in the area and lifting their seige. Then, on May 7, she was
wounded by an arrow that landed between her neck and shoulder, just as
she'd predicted to the diplomat.
After a few days of recovery, she went on to rid towns of the English
all along the Loire -- the river that led to Reims, where she wanted
the Dauphin to be crowned King. This wish came true on July 17. Joan
was there in attendance, given a place of honor at the coronation of
Charles VII, her standard in hand.
In August, Montépilloy was liberated, and by September, her attention
turned to freeing Paris. During the skirmishes there, she lost many
men, and was shot in the thigh with a crossbow. To add insult to
injury, the new King ordered an end to the assault, and worked out a
truce that ceded some territories to the Duke of Burgundy. Joan wanted
to continue to fight, but stood down in compliance.
In November, her army took Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, and followed up
with trying to liberate La-Charité-sur-Loire. Here, though, they
suffered a defeat, which diminished her value in the King's eyes.
Early the next year, in 1430, the Duke of Burgundy tried to assert
control over territories that had been ceded to him by the king, but
whose residents resisted. Melun and Lagny-sur-Marne were two such
places, and Joan and her men victoriously sided with the resisters.
Compiègne was another such place. But it was here, on May 23, where
Joan was arrested -- as she knew she would be: the Voices had told her
that she would be taken prisoner by midsummer.
The Burgundians who captured her made arrangements with the English:
the latter would pay the Burgundians a ransom, and custody of Joan
would be given to them. They made the trade and took her to Rouen. From
the Catholic Encyclopedia:
No words can
adequately describe the disgraceful ingratitude and apathy of Charles
and his advisers in leaving the Maid to her fate. If military force had
not availed, they had prisoners like the Earl of Suffolk in their
hands, for whom she could have been exchanged. Joan was sold by John of
Luxembourg to the English for a sum which would amount to several
hundred thousand dollars in modern money. There can be no doubt that
the English, partly because they feared their prisoner with a
superstitious terror, partly because they were ashamed of the dread
which she inspired, were determined at all costs to take her life. They
could not put her to death for having beaten them, but they could get
her sentenced as a witch and a heretic.
Moreover, they had a tool ready to their hand in Pierre Cauchon, the
Bishop of Beauvais, an unscrupulous and ambitious man who was the
creature of the Burgundian party. A pretext for invoking his authority
was found in the fact that Compiègne, where Joan was captured, lay in
the Diocese of Beauvais. Still, as Beauvais was in the hands of the
French, the trial took place at Rouen — the latter see being at that
time vacant. This raised many points of technical legality which were
summarily settled by the parties interested.
The Vicar of the Inquisition at first, upon some scruple of
jurisdiction, refused to attend, but this difficulty was overcome
before the trial ended. Throughout the trial Cauchon's assessors
consisted almost entirely of Frenchmen, for the most part theologians
and doctors of the University of Paris. Preliminary meetings of the
court took place in January, but it was only on 21 February, 1431, that
Joan appeared for the first time before her judges. She was not allowed
an advocate, and, though accused in an ecclesiastical court, she was
throughout illegally confined in the Castle of Rouen, a secular prison,
where she was guarded by dissolute English soldiers. Joan bitterly
complained of this. She asked to be in the church prison, where she
would have had female attendants. It was undoubtedly for the better
protection of her modesty under such conditions that she persisted in
retaining her male attire. Before she had been handed over to the
English, she had attempted to escape by desperately throwing herself
from the window of the tower of Beaurevoir, an act of seeming
presumption for which she was much browbeaten by her judges. This also
served as a pretext for the harshness shown regarding her confinement
at Rouen, where she was at first kept in an iron cage, chained by the
neck, hands, and feet. On the other hand she was allowed no spiritual
privileges — e.g. attendance at Mass — on account of the charge of
heresy and the monstrous dress (difformitate
habitus) she was wearing.
As regards the official record of the trial, which, so far as the Latin
version goes, seems to be preserved entire, we may probably trust its
accuracy in all that relates to the questions asked and the answers
returned by the prisoner. These answers are in every way favourable to
Joan. Her simplicity, piety, and good sense appear at every turn,
despite the attempts of the judges to confuse her. They pressed her
regarding her visions, but upon many points she refused to answer. Her
attitude was always fearless, and, upon 1 March, Joan boldly announced
that "within seven years' space the English would have to forfeit a
bigger prize than Orléans." In point of fact Paris was lost to Henry VI
on 12 November, 1437 — six years and eight months afterwards.
Found guilty of heresy, she was taken to a church yard to be publicly
accused. Here, "from fear of the fire," her fortitude seems to have
failed her, and
she was given -- and signed -- a document of abjuration, denying her
Voices. As to this abjuration, though, the Catholic Encyclopedia
says,
She consented to
sign some sort of retraction, but what the precise terms of that
retraction were will never be known. In the official record of the
process a form of retraction is in inserted which is most humiliating
in every particular. It is a long document which would have taken half
an hour to read. What was read aloud to Joan and was signed by her must
have been something quite different, for five witnesses at the
rehabilitation trial, including Jean Massieu, the official who had
himself read it aloud, declared that it was only a matter of a few
lines.
She was told to refrain from dressing in men's clothing, had her head
shaved, and was returned to the secular prison to be kept in chains and
guarded by men in spite of her accusers having promised to put her in
an ecclesiastical prison and allowing her to be attended to by women.
Her Voices spoke to her again, and reprimanded her for her abjuration.
So, she took back her denial of the Voices, and resumed dressing in
men's
clothing since she was being guarded by men. For the former, she was
found guilty of relapsing into heresy, was excommunicated, and was
sentenced to die. On My 30, 1431, she was taken to the marketplace in
Rouen and tied to a pillar. She asked that a Cross be brought to her,
and one of the English soldiers there tied two sticks together to form
one to
give to her. She kissed it, and a fire was lit under her. Someone else
had brought the processional Cross from the local church, and she fixed
her
eyes on it as she was consumed by the flames. After she was dead, her
ashes were thrown into the Seine River. She was nineteen years old.
Twenty-four years after she was killed, the Catholic Encyclopedia tells
us, a
revision of
her trial, the procès de réhabilitation, was opened at Paris with the
consent of the Holy See. The popular feeling was then very different,
and, with but the rarest exceptions, all the witnesses were eager to
render their tribute to the virtues and supernatural gifts of the Maid.
The first trial had been conducted without reference to the pope;
indeed it was carried out in defiance of St. Joan's appeal to the head
of the Church. Now an appellate court constituted by the pope, after
long inquiry and examination of witnesses, reversed and annulled the
sentence pronounced by a local tribunal under Cauchon's presidency. The
illegality of the former proceedings was made clear, and it speaks well
for the sincerity of this new inquiry that it could not be made without
inflicting some degree of reproach upon both the King of France and the
Church at large, seeing that so great an injustice had been done and
had so long been suffered to continue unredressed.
She was canonized by Pope St. Pius X on April 11, 1909.
You can visit the house in which Joan was born ("la maison natale de
Jeanne d'Arc") in Domrémy-la-Pucelle today.
Right next to her home is
her parish church, now named partly in her honor -- l'Église Saint-Rémy
de Domrémy-la-Pucelle. It is between her home and this church where she
first heard the heavenly Voices that inspired her to become the woman
we honor today.
.On the
left, Joan's home; on the right, her parish church
Customs
Some may prepare for this feast by praying a Novena to St. Joan starting on May 21 and
ending on May 29. For her feast itself, the Litany of St. Joan of Arc would
be the perfect prayer.
All throughout the year, Joan is memorialized in different ways
in various places in France. In Vaucouleurs, where she'd met
Baudricourt, her memory is honored in February with great medieval
reenactments. In Domrémy-la-Pucelle, her birthplace, she
is feted on the second Sunday of May. In Orléans in May, Joan
is
celebrated with recreations of her arrival there,
military parades, theatrical events, and other festivities. Reims, too
-- the city where French kings
are crowned -- celebrates her then as well. Rouen, where she was
martyred, has its own celebrations for the ten days that precede her
feast. But
all of these celebrations honor Joan more as a patriotic figure than as
a
Saint. On one level, Joan is to monarchists and traditionalists what
the figure of Marianne is to people on the Left in France;
on another level, she is a symbol of French patriotism itself. For ex.,
during World War I, it was common for French soldiers to carry her
image
when going into battle. And using her to rally the troops isn't -- or
at least wasn't -- just a French affair. This American song -- "Joan of
Arc, They are Calling You" -- was written in 1917, during World War I:
Joan of Arc, They are Calling You
By Alfred Bryan, Willie Weston, and Jack Wells
While you are sleeping,
Your France is weeping,
Wake from your dreams, Maid of France.
Her heart is bleeding;
Are you unheeding?
Come with the flame in your glance;
Through the Gates of Heaven, with your sword in hand,
Come your legions to command.
Chorus:
Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc,
Do your eyes, from the skies, see the foe?
Don't you see the drooping Fleurdelis?
Can't you hear the tears of Normandy?
Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc,
Let your spirit guide us through;
Come lead your France to victory;
Joan of Arc, they are calling you.
Alsace is sighing,
Lorraine is crying,
Their mother, France, looks to you.
Her sons at Verdun;
Bearing the burden,
Pray for your coming anew;
At the Gates of Heaven, do they bar your way?
Souls that passed through yesterday.
For us Catholics, Joan is all that, of course, but she is
much more. She is a part of the Church Triumphant, an example of fortitude for us,
and a great Saint who will pray for us.
As for music, the two songs
below are much more fitting for her feast than the song above. The
second -- Cantate à l'Etendard -- was written in 1899 by the Abbé
Marcel Laurent of Orléans, with verses by Gustave Vié, Archbishop of
Monaco; it's sung every year in Orléans, and is so popular that it was
once considered as an alternative to France's national anthem, La
Marseillaise:
Chant à Ste. Jeanne
Jeanne, Seigneur, est ton oeuvre splendide.
Un coeur de feu, une âme de guerrier,
Tu les donnas à la vierge timide,
La couronnant de lis et de laurier.
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Notre espérance Repose en vous,
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Priez, priez pour nous!
Jeanne entendit, dans son humble prairie,
Des voix du ciel l'appeler aux combats ;
Elle partit pour sauver la patrie
La douce Enfant à l'armée commanda.
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Notre espérance Repose en vous,
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Priez, priez pour nous!
Des fiers guerriers, Jeanne gagna les âmes
L'éclat divin de cet ange des cieux,
Son pur regard, ses paroles de flammes,
Surent courber les fronts audacieux
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Notre espérance Repose en vous,
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Priez, priez pour nous!
Jeanne c'est toi notre unique espérance;
Du haut des Cieux, daigne entendre nos voix;
Descends vers nous, Viens convertir la France,
Viens la sauver une seconde fois!
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Notre espérance Repose en vous,
Sainte Jeanne de France,
Priez, priez pour nous!
Song to St. Joan
Lord, Joan is Your splendid work,
A heart of fire, a warrior's soul:
You gave them to the timid virgin,
Whom You wished to crown with laurels.
Saint Joan of France,
Our hope Rests in you,
Saint Joan of France,
Pray, pray for us!
In her humble meadow Joan heard,
Voices from Heaven calling her into combat,
She left to save her country,
The sweet child commanded the army.
Saint Joan of France,
Our hope Rests in you,
Saint Joan of France,
Pray, pray for us!
She won over the souls of proud warriors,
The Divine luster of Heaven's messenger,
Her pure gaze, her fiery words,
Were able to make bold brows give way....
Saint Joan of France,
Our hope Rests in you,
Saint Joan of France,
Pray, pray for us!
Joan, you are our only hope.
From high in the Heavens, deign to hear our voices.
Come down to us, come convert France.
Come save her a second time.
Saint Joan of France,
Our hope Rests in you,
Saint Joan of France,
Pray, pray for us!
Cantate à l'Etendard
Sonnez fanfares triomphales,
Tonnez canons, battez tambours!
Et vous, cloches des cathédrales,
Ebranlez-vous comme au grand jour!
En ce moment la France toute entière
Est debout avec ses enfants
Pour saluer, comme nous, la bannière
De la Pucelle d'Orléans!
Chorus:
Etendard de la délivrance,
A la victoire il mena nos aïeux,
A leurs enfants il prêche l'Espérance,
Fils de ces preux, chantons comme eux,
Fils de ces preux, chantons comme eux,
Chantons comme eux,
Vive Jehanne, Vive la France!
Salut à la blanche bannière
Salut, salut aux noms bénis
Du Christ et de Sa Sainte Mère
Inscrit par Jehanne dans ses plis
Par eux, jadis, elle sauva la France
Aimons-les donc comme autrefois
Et de nouveau consacrons l'alliance
De notre épée avec la Croix!
Quels noms fameux tu nous rappelles,
Drapeau sacré, toujours vainqueur!
Patay, Beaugency, les Tourelles,
Et Reims où tu fus à l'honneur!
A ton aspect, que la France reprenne
Sa vieille foi et sa vieille ardeur,
En t'acclamant que ton peuple devienne,
Plus généreux, plus rédempteur!
Planant au-dessus de nos têtes,
Les grands français de tous les temps
Réclament leur part de nos fêtes
En s'unissant à leurs enfants!
Les anciens francs, les preux du Moyen-Age,
Et les braves des temps nouveaux
A Jehanne d'Arc rendent le même hommage,
Et lui présentent leurs drapeaux!
Song to the Standard
Sound triumphant brass bands,
Thunder cannons, beat drums!
And you, bells of the cathedrals,
Shake yourselves as in broad daylight!
At this moment the whole of France
Is standing with her children
To salute, like us, the banner
Of the Maid of Orleans!
Chorus:
Standard of deliverance,
To victory he led our ancestors,
To their children he preaches Hope,
Son of these brave men, let's sing like them,
Son of these brave men, let's sing like them,
Let's sing like them,
Long live Jehanne, Long live France!
Hail to the white banner
Hail, hail to the blessed names
Of Christ and His Blessed Mother
Inscribed by Joan in her folds
By them, long ago, she saved France
So let's love them as before
And once again consecrate the covenant
Of our sword with the cross!
What famous names you remind us of,
Sacred flag, always victorious!
Patay, Beaugency, Les Tourelles,
And Reims where you were in the spotlight!
At your appearance, may France resume
Her old faith and her old ardor,
By acclaiming you that your people become,
More generous, more redeeming!
Hovering above our heads,
The great Frenchmen of all times
Claim their share of our celebrations
By uniting with their children!
The old Franks, the braves of the Middle Ages,
And the brave of new times
To Joan of Arc pay the same homage,
And present their flags to her!
Many other songs
have
been written about Joan, and much literature
has arisen about our Saint, too. The rush to memorialize her in words
started early; even before Joan's death; in 1429, Christine de Pizan
wrote an elegiac poem about her entitled "Le Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc"
(you can read a translation here).
Shakespeare includes her, albeit very disrespectfully and scandalously
(to be expected in Elizabethan England, alas), in his "Henry VI, Part
I", and George Bernard Shaw also wrote a play -- "Saint Joan" -- about
her. Mark Twain wrote an account of her life -- "The Personal
Recollections of Joan of Arc" (pdf) -- daring to write in the first
person,
as
Joan. And then there are the paintings and sculpture. As to that
last, in the Place des Pyramides, in Paris's 1st arrondissement, at the
very heart of the city, is a great golden statue of Joan astride her
horse.
I don't know of any food customs related to today's feast, alas. But
since Joan was from Lorraine, a Quiche Lorraine sounds like a good
choice.
Quiche Lorraine
One 9-inch deep-dish pie crust (you can "cheat" and get
store-bought unbaked crust. Thaw before using.)
8 oz thick-cut bacon (about 6 slices), diced
1/2 cup chopped shallots, from 2 medium shallots
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pinch ground nutmeg
4 oz Gruyère cheese, finely shredded (about 1 1/4 cups)
Heat your oven to 400oF. Put the crust in a deep
9" pie tin. Prick the crust all over with a fork, put the tin on top of
a baking sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes until golden. If it puffs
up while baking, prick it again (you can also try baking it with
another pie tin sitting on top so it presses down on the dough). Keep
the pie tin on the baking sheet.
Turn the oven down to 325oF.
In a frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from pan
and drain. Remove all but about a tablespoon of bacon grease from the
pan, and then add the shallots, cooking over medium heat until they're
transluscent but not brown. Then remove them from the pan as well and
set aside.
In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add in the heavy cream, salt,
cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.
Spread the shallots over the bottom of the crust. Top with
half of the bacon, all of the Gruyère, and then the rest of the bacon.
Pour the egg/cream mixture over top. Slide the baking sheet into the
oven and bake at 325oF for about 45 to 50 minutes. Serve hot
or cold, preferably with a green salad, roasted vegetables, crusty
bread, and a nice Gewürztraminer. Follow up with fruit or with the
classic chocolate mousse:
Mousse au Chocolat
6 eggs, at room temperature, separated
2/3 cup heavy cream, cold
9 TBSP powdered sugar
2 pinches of salt
8.8 oz good quality dark chocolate
0.6 oz butter
9 oz or so of raspberries
In a chilled large bowl, whip cream with powdered sugar until soft
peaks form.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with salt til stiff peaks form.
Break the chocolate into small pieces in a medium bowl and melt add to
the butter, which you have already melted in a double boiler at a low
simmer. Stir occasionally 'til the chocolate is melted. Once
the chocolate is almost melted (with small lumps left), mix with a
large rubber spatula, pour into another bowl, and continue to stir
while cooling. Add the room temperature egg yolks one by one to the
melted chocolate while mixing.
Stir the whipped cream in the chocolate/egg yolks mixture.
Gently fold egg whites into the above (don't stir! Fold!).
Arrange half of the raspberries at the bottom of six serving glasses
and divide the mousse between them. Cover glasses with plastic film and
refrigerate for at least two hours, preferably overnight. Top with
remaining raspberries to make it pretty.
For entertainment's sake,
there's this old time radio show about the execution of St. Joan. It's
an episode of CBS's "You Are There" called "Joan of Arc is Burned at
the Stake," and in it, St. Joan's story is presented as a news story.
It originally aired in
February of 1948:
Read more about St. Joan's life in the books about her in
this site's Catholic Library.
Finally, on a radically different note, the horrible story of
a medieval serial killer named Gilles de Rais plays a part in the
history of St. Joan. It's an extremely graphic story (one not for
children!), but I present it here for information's sake: The Notorious Gilles de Rais.
Footnotes:
1 Though Joan is popularly thought of as a
martyr, she was canonized and is remembered liturgically as a Virgin.
She wasn't executed for her faith in Christ, at least not per se.