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| Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans (1886-1890) by Jules Eugène Lenepveu |
Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
“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 indicates 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.
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:
begin 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 end
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=8633
—Father Peter Joseph, “True and False Martyrdom,” Catholic Culture, 2022
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/05/why-is-joan-of-arc-saint.html
Blessed Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943)
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life brings together a German-speaking cast, a slew of Oscar buzz, and reintroduces us to the man who brought the browbeat SS-Sturmbannführer from Inglorious Bastards to life—actor August Diehl. August has played several roles across the spectrum of World War II Germany, from a gestapo officer and a hardened NS general to a Jewish concentration camp prisoner incarcerated for forging baptismal certificates. He now stars in A Hidden Life as Franz Jagerstatter, the forgotten martyr and devout Catholic who saw the evil of Nazi Germany before many else did.
...Who was Franz Jagerstatter?
Franz Jagerstatter, born in St. Radegund, Austria in 1907, was a farmer with a quiet but intense religious conviction. Apart from a few stints in mining, he served as a sacristan at his parish, ringing the occasional bell and preparing weddings and funerals for no extra compensation.
In the film, Franz enjoys rural life with his wife and their daughters after Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938. During his military training in 1940, he notices the evil underlying the Nazi regime and arrives home dead-set on refusing to fight for the army in the future. Such was the case in real life. He declared his refusal to fight when he was summoned back to the Linz barracks in 1943, where he was held in custody, transferred to Berlin-Tegel to await trial, and condemned to death for sedition.
Franz thought participating in something so evil would be more enslaving than having chains binding his hands. Before his execution on August 9th 1943, he wrote that “neither prison, nor chains, nor sentence of death, can rob a man of the Faith [Roman Catholic faith] and his free will.”
...What is his legacy?
A slew of people in the film question Franz’s decision to surrender his life. Even the judge sentencing him to death attempts to dissuade him, positing that no one will hear of him and his bravery. The truth is, Franz did remain largely forgotten after his death in 1943. Only until sociologist Gordon Zahn stumbled upon St. Radegund and published Franz’s biography in the 1960s did people hear of his martyrdom. Twenty years after his death, Franz’s case would influence the Vatican’s decision on conscientious objection to military service (Gaudium et spes). In 1997, the regional court in Berlin nullified his death sentence and in June 2007 his birth town laid a Stolperstein, a concrete cube that commemorates victims of the Nazis. That October, Franz’s wife and children gathered at the Linz Cathedral for his [beatification] by Pope Benedict [XVI]. Let’s not forget that he also has his own postage stamp.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30202012/a-hidden-life-true-story-franz-jagerstatter/
—Isabella Garces, “A Hidden Life Tells the Harrowing and Heartbreaking True Story of Franz Jagerstatter,” Esquire, December 14, 2019
Is Blessed Franz Jägerstätter a martyr? Yes, according to our renewed understanding of the term in the Roman Catholic Church.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe] 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.
begin 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 end
—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.
Based on the foregoing, which offers us a renewed understanding of martyrdom in the Roman Catholic Church, Franz Jägerstätter may be considered a martyr.
As a witness to the moral obligation of conscientious objection even to the point of death, he is accurately described as a martyr—a Christian martyr, yes, and a martyr of conscience besides.
Image courtesy of Tijmen Stam
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