Why Is Joan of Arc a Saint?

Saint Joan of Arc, 1903 engraving from Figaro Illustre

WHY IS JOAN OF ARC A SAINT?

“She claimed that her mission was given to her from God, and that all she did was in obedience to his commands through the voices of various saints.”

“She understood that she must act at the command of God and she obeyed Him, against insurmountable odds and all natural expectations.

“This alone would make her holy and beloved in the eyes of God. For even if she were mistaken or deluded about her mission, her intention was to do God’s will with no thought for herself, for her reputation or for her personal safety.”

“The Church did eventually canonize the Maid of Orleans in 1926. So we know with certainty that she was indeed inspired by God and achieved her remarkable mission through grace.”

http://www.faith.org.uk/article/july-august-2004-joan-of-arc-why-is-she-a-saint

 

—A Sister of Mount Carmel, “Joan of Arc: Why Is She a Saint?” Faith Magazine, July 1, 2004

 

Joan of Arc was canonized because of her obedience to the will of God which she understood through private revelation. The author says that this private revelation is “certain.”

Of private revelation, Catholic theology says:

“When the Church approves private revelations, she declares only that there is nothing in them contrary faith or good morals, and that they may be read without danger or even with profit; no obligation is thereby imposed on the faithful to believe them.”

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13005a.htm

 

—“Private Revelations,” Catholic Encyclopedia, 2021 

 

We may conclude then that we might just as well believe that Joan of Arc’s private revelations do not come from God. Although a close examination of the circumstances indicate that it is “certain” they do, we cannot say for sure.

We are left then with the conclusion that Joan of Arc is canonized because of her heroic adherence to her conscience, that is, her understanding of the will of God and her moral obligation to steadfastly accomplish it, whether or not we subscribe to her claim of private revelations.

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Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, at one point says this about Saint Joan:

“The story of Joan of Arc as we have known it is an almost mythical one, a fantasy of divine proportions. She was a simple French girl from the unsophisticated countryside who took it upon herself to save the country when its leaders could not. She was impelled by the voices of St. Catherine of Siena, St. Margaret, and the Archangel Michael, she said, to follow the will of God. She was to liberate a city, lead an army, save a king, and free a nation from foreign control. The story seems remote, the model suspect, and the voices from heaven not a common way of expressing contemporary spiritual insights or calls from God.

“In the end, Joan is captured by her English enemies and burned at the stake with the help of churchmen who consider her a heretic, label her a witch, and condemn her to death because of her refusal to denounce her voices as the church has commanded her to do.

“The relation of all that to sanctity in the twenty-first century seems at best obscure until little by little the local history is peeled away and the light is focused on the very human and very universal situation that underlies it. Joan is not to be revered because she was a soldier in the service of the king. Joan is to be revered because she is a model of conscience development, a monument to the feminine relationship to God, and a breaker of the stereotypes that block the will of God for people.

“Suddenly, Joan of Arc appears in the plain light of our own lives. She is a woman with a conscience. She is a woman with a mission. She is a woman who has been chosen by God for a man’s job. She is a woman who is bold enough to claim that she has access to God and that God has outrageous plans for her. She is a woman who dares to confront the authorities of the time with a greater question than they are able to handle. She is a woman who threatens the status quo. She tells an inspired truth and leads a life consecrated to her God.

“Joan of Arc is not simply the patron of France in times such as ours. Joan of Arc is patron of all those who hear the voice of God calling them beyond present impossibilities to the fullness of conscience everywhere.”

—Joan Chittister, “Joan of Arc: A Voice of Conscience,” A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God (2001)

 

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Although private revelations do not obligate the faithful to believe them, this rule of the practice of our Roman Catholic faith does not imply that they have no claims on our conscience.

If the recipient of the private revelation believes in it, then they are obliged to follow their conscience.

If, on the other hand, they are not the direct recipient, but after they investigate the human evidence or evaluate the approval of ecclesiastical authority they are persuaded of its authenticity—then they are obliged to follow their conscience.

“Although recognized by the Church and, at times, approved by her authority, private revelations are not the object of divine faith that binds one in conscience to believe on God's authority. The assent given to them, therefore, is either on human evidence or, when formally approved by the Church, on ecclesiastical authority according to the mind of the Church.”

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35799

—“Catholic Dictionary: Private Revelations,” Catholic Culture, 2022

“Private revelations do not bind us specifically as matters of faith, but can still, as prophecies and as real events, make claims on the mind and conscience to respond appropriately.”

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/fatima-today-in-defense-private-revelation/

—Thomas V. Mirus, “Fatima Today: In Defense of Private Revelation,” Catholic Culture, March 24, 2022

“General revelation is binding on all Christians, but private revelations are binding only on their recipients. If you ever receive a private revelation…and are convinced the revelation is from God or from one of his saints on his behalf, in conscience you are obliged to believe in its authenticity and to act on its message.”

https://legatus.org/news/are-catholics-obliged-to-believe-in-marian-apparitions

—Karl Keating, “Are Catholics obliged to believe in Marian apparitions?” Legatus.org, May 15, 2017

Saint Joan of Arc belongs to the category of recipients of private revelations who were convinced in their conscience that their private revelations were communicated by God so that they acted accordingly. She acted with outstanding faith and virtue and to a heroic degree. 

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Is Saint Joan of Arc a martyr? Yes, according to the broad understanding of the term.

“The Greek word martus signifies a witness who testifies to a fact of which he has knowledge from personal observation. It is in this sense that the term first appears in Christian literature; the Apostles were ‘witnesses’ of all that they had observed in the public life of Christ, as well as of all they had learned from His teaching, ‘in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).

“…the use of the word martus in Christian terminology a new shade of meaning is already noticeable, in addition to the accepted signification of the term. The disciples of Christ were no ordinary witnesses such as those who gave testimony in a court of justice. These latter ran no risk in bearing testimony to facts that came under their observation, whereas the witnesses of Christ were brought face to face daily, from the beginning of their apostolate, with the possibility of incurring severe punishment and even death itself.”

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09736b.htm

—“Martyr,” Catholic Encyclopedia, 2021

Saint Joan acted in conscience according to her belief in the private revelations that she received, for which she paid the ultimate price of her life. We note that her canonization implies that her private revelations were favorably judged by Roman Catholic Church.

Saint Joan is a witness to the truth taught by the Roman Catholic Church that one is obliged to follow their conscience, even to the point of sacrificing her life, so that she might be described as a “martyr of conscience.”

However, strictly speaking, according to the Roman Catholic theology, Saint Joan is not a martyr. Catholic Culture explains this point well:

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Dominican Fr Benedict Ashley says:

begin block quote True martyrdom requires three conditions: (1) that the victim actually die, (2) that he or she dies in witness of faith in Christ which is directly expressed in words, or implicitly in acts done or sins refused because of faith, and (3) that the victim accepts death voluntarily. They are not martyrs who do not actually die, or die from disease, for the sake of merely natural truths, or heresy, or for their country in war, or through suicide, etc. end block quote

Fr Ashley explains:

begin block quote ‘Martyr’ is often used loosely of anyone who dies for the sake of any cause. But the Christian cause is in fact objectively true, and not a subjective illusion, as are many of the causes for which persons die sincerely but deludedly. Thus those who die for the sake of fanatical religious cults, or as terrorists, or for their own glory, however sincere, are not genuine martyrs, but are objectively suicides. Nor are those who die for a noble but merely human motive, as the parent who dies to save a child, or a soldier for his country, since such virtuous acts can pertain simply to the order of natural virtue. end block quote

In 2004, the Pope canonised Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian mother. During her pregnancy with her fourth child, she was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst. Her surgeon recommended an abortion in order to save Gianna's life. She refused that, of course, and refused any operation, since that would threaten the life of her baby. So she died a week after childbirth, in 1962, at the age of 39, heroically caring more for her unborn child than for her own life. Today that child is a physician herself, and involved in the pro-life movement in Italy. Her mother is not a martyr, but a hero of love, and her mother’s sacrifice brought forth a harvest.

The sacred name of martyr belongs only to one who renders testimony to divine truth. A heretic in good faith who dies for Christ may be counted among the martyrs, but a contumacious heretic who dies for his sect is not a martyr because he does not testify to divine truth but to a (false) human teaching.

Blessed Damien of Molokai is a hero (of charity), but not a martyr. St Pio of Pietrelcina suffered enormously over 50 years with the stigmata, but is not a martyr. In the Missal, a saint who is a martyr is always named such. M. is placed next to their name for Martyr.

We count as an exception the Holy Innocents, whom the Church, although they lack the usual element of acceptance of death, nevertheless honours as martyrs in the liturgy because they died in the place of the infant Christ and received the Baptism of Blood.

Abortion victims cannot be counted as martyrs; they are victims but not martyrs. There is a movement, originating in Surbiton, London, to get them officially canonised — but this is a mistake. If they are martyrs, then every murder victim dying in a state of grace would be a martyr. This is seen to be false from the investigation the Church conducts into a claimed martyr.

For a claimed martyr, the object of the initial diocesan inquiry is threefold: (a) the candidate's life (b) martyrdom (c) reputation for martyrdom. The crucial question to establish martyrdom is: was this person killed for the faith? Not simply: was he murdered? — which is usually obvious.

Death itself might not occur immediately, but if the sufferings inflicted lead to death within a reasonable time, then that will count as martyrdom. In English law, it has been the practice to deem an act “murder” (or manslaughter) if death comes within a year and a day from the injury inflicted.

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https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=8633

—Father Peter Joseph, “True and False Martyrdom,” Catholic Culture, 2022

We would note that Saint Maximilian Kolbe is an important exception. He was canonized in 1982 as a martyr by Saint John Paul II and therefore holds the official title of martyr in the Roman Catholic Church.

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The question of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom was vigorously debated at the time of his canonization precisely because there was no indication that he was put to death out of hatred for the faith (odium fidei), the criterion for martyrdom. At the time of his beatification, St. Maximilian was considered a confessor and not a martyr. However, when it came time to canonize him, Pope John Paul II personally authorized naming him a martyr. His reasoning was that systematic hatred for the human person—such as that displayed by the Nazi regime—constitutes an implicit hatred for the faith.

…There are other indications that in recent decades the Church has been developing its understanding of martyrdom beyond the traditionally strict criterion of odium fidei.

On April 24, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a letter to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in which he stated:

begin block quote What has changed are the cultural contexts of martyrdom and the strategies ex parte persecutoris [on the part of the persecutors] that more and more seldom explicitly show their aversion to the Christian faith or to a form of conduct connected with the Christian virtues, but simulate different reasons, for example, of a political or social nature.

It is of course necessary to find irrefutable proof of readiness for martyrdom, such as the outpouring of blood and of its acceptance by the victim. It is likewise necessary, directly or indirectly but always in a morally certain way, to ascertain the odium fidei of the persecutor. If this element is lacking there would be no true martyrdom according to the perennial theological and juridical doctrine of the Church. end block quote

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https://www.catholic.com/qa/if-st-maximilian-kolbe-offered-his-life-to-save-a-fellow-prisoner-was-he-truly-a-martyr

—Catholic Answers Staff, “If St. Maximilian Kolbe offered his life to save a fellow prisoner, was he truly a martyr?” Catholic Answers

According to this expanded understanding of martyr, odium fidei may be implicit, that is, it is expressed in forms not consisting in direct or explicit opposition to the martyr’s profession of their Roman Catholic faith.

When Saint Maximilian was canonized in 1982 as a “martyr of charity” by Saint John Paul II, we submit that the expression was used here in the broader Christian meaning of the term, “martyr.”