JOAN OF ARC, SAINT (1412-1431) , French patriot. Joan of Arc was known in the country-side of Domremy as Jeannette, with the surname of Arc or Romee. She is alluded to in con temporary documents as Jeanne, commonly called The Maid. She was born on Jan. 6, 1412, at Domremy on the Meuse in a house in the shadow of the church. Her father was Jacques d'Arc, a native of Ceffonds in Champagne, and her mother Isabelle de Vouthon, called "la Romee," either because she had made a pil grimage to Rome, or, more probably, from a family name. Both husband and wife were of farming stock, and devout Catholics. Jacques owned horses and cattle ; he was the doyen of the village, and was its spokesman in a law-suit. He may be regarded, in fact, as the headman of Domremy, a kind of mayor. With others he rented the Château de l'Ile, its gardens, and pasturage. Hardly anything is known of Joan's childhood; from her mother she learnt her prayers and the lives of the Saints, and she played till she was 12 or 13 with the other village children. The boys of Domremy, who were French in their sympathies, were at frequent odds with the boys of the Burgundian village, on the other side of the Meuse. Saint Remy, patron saint of the cathedral of Reims, was also that of the church at Domremy. Joan, who was baptized by the cure Minet, was a pious child, and often went with her companions to bear wreaths of flowers to Notre Dame de Bermont. She had heard, without believing, the story of the fairies who haunted the spring among the bushes. She was almost certainly ignorant of Merlin's prophecy that a maid should come from the Bois Chenu to do great deeds.
Joan helped her parents in tillage, tended the animals, and was skilled with her needle and in other feminine arts. She was pious, and often went to church when the other girls were dancing. She was in her 13th year when, in her father's garden, she heard for the first time a voice from God. Thereupon she vowed to remain a virgin and to lead a godly life. During the next five years she heard the voices two or three times a week. Among them she distinguished those of Saint Catherine and Saint Mar garet, who appeared to her, in the guise of queens, wearing rich and precious crowns. Sometimes their coming was heralded by
Saint Michael. With these visions Joan became still more serious, and more given to prayer. The troubles of Domremy between 1419 and 1428 made her early acquainted with the horrors of war. Her voices commanded her to go to France, and to raise the siege of Orleans, which had been begun in Oct. 1428.
We do not know the exact moment at which Joan decided to obey her voices, and to go to France. The captain of the fortified town nearest to Domremy on the French side was Robert de Baudricourt, commandant at Vaucouleurs, four leagues away. Joan approached him for the first time in May 1428, accompanied by a relative on her mother's side, one Durand Laxart ou Lassois. She was in her 16th year. At this time an army was being raised in England for the conquest of the Dauphin's territory south of the Loire. The journey was made without the knowledge of her family, for when Joan had spoken of going into France, her father had said that he would rather drown her with his own hands. She told the Dauphin's commandant that she was sent by Our Lord, and asked him to write to the Dauphin saying that, by the will of God, she was to lead him to his crowning. Baudricourt attached no importance to the visit, and sent her back to her parents. At home Joan talked more and more of her great mission. In July 1428, the governor of Champagne, Antoine de Vergy, undertook to subdue the country round Vaucouleurs for the English. The people of Domremy retreated with their cattle to Neufchateau where Joan spent a fortnight with a woman called La Rousse, who kept an inn. This is the origin of the false Burgundian legend that she was a light woman, liking the company of men-at-arms and horses. Some time after, she was summoned for breach of promise of marriage, before the magistrates of Toul, by a young man who had sought her hand. On the return of the family to Domremy, they found the village burned to the ground, and Joan had to attend the church of Greux. Towards the end of October, she learned that Orleans was besieged by the English, who had gar risoned the towns along the Loire.