St. Joan of Arc...
I recently finished "Joan of Arc: her story" by Regine Pernoud, Marie-Veronique Clin, translated by Prof. Jeremy Duesquesnay Adams.
Whoa!
Like many folks, I knew the bare bones of her story. She heard voices, did that they said, turned the tide for France in the Hundred Years War, was betrayed and burnt at the stake as a heretic. After some years her conviction for heresy was revoked, she was canonized some time later. Okey-dokey, next case.
This book fleshed it out a bit more. Suffice to say that theres enough there to give pause to most skeptics. I won't go into all the details, if you're interested I recommend checking it out personally.
Along with telling the story of "The Maid" from objective and easily verified documents, the book off-handedly answers the old question; "Why would God choose to take sides in a war between two Catholic nations?"
Nope, I ain't telling that one either.
One thought came out of the whole reading of this bit of history though; It's a sad commentary that a 17 year old French girl of the 15th Century had a bigger set of balls than most of the Church Militant of our time.
Please note I don't exclude myself from that assessment either.
2 comments:
You bet it's a sad commentary!
For your next read I highly recommend The Retrial of Joan of Arc by Regine Pernoud. Fills out the story even more.
Happy reading!
Old Bob, thanks and I'll do that. What a fascinating saint! We often speak of the faith of the BVM but hey, she was conceived without sin and so stood one step above the rest of mere humanity. Joan of Arc, on the other hand, is someone a bit closer to the run of the mill humanity.
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