Chapter 12 - The Fruits of Saint Joan's Martyrdom

They threw her ashes into the Seine - swallowed up in the waters that sweep down to the immensity of the sea. Twenty-five years later the findings of her trial were reversed, the treachery and perfidy of her judges revealed, and the arch-traitor, Cauchon, held up to the detestation not only of his own age but of all ages to come. It was a late compensation for all she had suffered, it is true, but it cleared her reputation in the minds of those who had doubted her sincerity and piety, and served to establish her sanctity more fully in the minds of her friends. Since that time her memory has lived and been justified not only in song, legend, and story but in the historical written testimony wrung from the lips of her accusers as weapons for her destruction.

Almighty God, who uses the weak ones of the earth to confound the strong, whose supreme wisdom brings good out of evil, decreed that these very weapons should be her defense and glory. But for her enemies Saint Joan might have soon been forgotten - a saint in heaven, as the Church now recognizes her, but numbered among the thousands who dwell in Paradise, chosen souls whose holiness is known to God alone.

True, the siege of Orleans and the triumphal march to Rheims would still be recounted in the pages of history, a few sayings of the Maid who was noted as speaking but little might still be preserved, but the volume of her answers, which reveal to us a soul wondrously illumined by divine grace, would never have existed. The favored children of God, those whom He chooses as instruments of His justice, mercy, or glory, more often than otherwise have to pay dearly in tears of blood, in persecution and sacrifice, for the honor of that choice.

If the ingratitude and injustice of man had not made of her a martyr, no doubt she would have passed into obscurity when her appointed work was done. The companions of her childhood, unlettered peasants of her native' village, Domremy, the troops; who followed her banner, the burghers of Orleans, the princes and courtiers and high men-at-arms, the faithful friar who stood by her at the stake, the executioner who fired the funeral pyre - all these would have passed away and none of the precious recollections they had of the Maid would have been left on record.

It was the bitterness of Saint Joan's foes that provided against this. Investigation of their iniquitous acts called forth a mass of damaging testimony, deposed upon oath, each one of which brings a converging ray of light to shine upon their perfidious hate and all but unparalleled injustice, as it does upon the character of the modest, gentle Maid of Domremy.

It reveals to us a saintliness and simplicity in childhood, a saintliness and modesty in the courts of kings, a saintliness and dignity in the rough camps of war, and a saintliness and heroism in the hour of death which has not been surpassed in the history of mankind.

During the past dreadful war, devotion to Saint Joan of Arc, not then canonized but already pronounced Blessed, was renewed in a remarkable degree. Medals struck in her honor were carried by Protestants as well as Catholics as a protection against danger and death. It has been asserted many times that soldiers on the field were granted a vision of the Maid of France; the victory of the Marne has time and again been attributed to her intercession.

Saint Joan has still work to do. She will never grow cold to the sons of her native land who so fervently besought her in their terrible hour of need; she will never forget to plant the lilies of France in the hearts of the little children, who are to be the Christian men and women of the future. It will be hers to garner the spiritual harvest of her country's need, to fill the souls of her countrymen with the fire of Christian charity, to bring back to France - eldest daughter of the Church - in full and entire completeness her old inheritance of Faith.

- taken from A Child's Life of Saint Joan of Arc, by Mary Ellen Mannix