The Irish standard., 1893-04-08
MAID OF ORLEANS,
The Fronch Heroine Who was First
Executed and Then Cremated
= by the British.
THE SANITY JOAN OF ARC.

I THE SANITY JOAN OF ARC.
The Beatidcation Of the Martyr to
Faith and Country to be Soon
Considered.
s The Holy Father could hardly have
decided upon any action that would
prove more gratifying to the Catholics of
France than his recently announced in
tention Of proceeding with the beatifca-
4 tion OF Jeanne dare, the heroic maid of
Orleans. For four centuries and half,
or ever since her shameful execution at
d D Rouen on the last day OF May, l431, this
maid of prophecy, as she was hailed by
the beleaguered Orleanist, whose town
she 80 frequently succored, has been re-
Sgarded by all loyal Frenchmen as one Of
the grandest, nobleet and purest charac"
ters Of their country's history; and tire,
instead Of flessening her fame and renown,
I seems to have added to it each year, and
to have carried the story of her valor
and virtues into other lands, until now
the Sovereign Pontif who roigns so glor-
iously over the universal church declares
his determination to add another to the
many great obligations under which he
has placed Catholic France to the Holy
See, by ordering that the process of her
beatifcation be considered forthwith by
the cardinals of the Congregation Of
Rites, the prefeet Of which Congregation
is Cardinal Aloisi- Maseila.
This pious regard Of Leo XIII. for
= Joan OF Arc is no new sentiment on his
part, says writer in the The Republic.
Three years ago, when Monsignor Pages,
the bishop Of the French diocese of Yer
dun, proposed to erect statue OF the
maid ou the ruins of the castle OF Beau
dricourt, whose owner helped when she
first announced her nivine commission
% so to the aid OF the Dauphiu, the
present Pontiff wrote that preiate a let
ter highly approving of his plan and say
ing among other things: ''Our dear
cons, the bishops Of Verdun and Nancy,
having communicated to us the scheme
of the former to rear a national monu-
naent near Vanoourtleurs to the glory Of
Joan Of Arc, we bless with all our heart
this noble enterprises, and commend it to
the generosity Of the Catholic world. y
And back in the fifteenth century Pope
Calixtns Ill, who sat in st. Peters chair
from 1886 to l458, and who, as Cardinal
Alphonsus Borgia, had won an enviable
fame as an ecclesiastic thoroughly skilled
in Jurisprudence, instituted a quarter Of
q century after her execution athorough
investigation into the trial of Joan, with
the result that, when the archbishop OF
1 Rheims, who had the principal part in
this investigation, made his report, the
Pontif declared that the maids inno-
cence of all the charges alleged against
her was proven, and he iseued q declara-
) ton to the effect that Joan of Arc had
died maytyr for her faith, her King and
her country. 1t cannot. therefore, be
charged against Leo XIII. that, in the
steps he is about to take for the beatif-
cation of the maid of Orleans, he is in
augurating movement hitherto unheard
ofin the Catholic Church, since here are
the words of one of his predecessors, over
400 years ago, which virtually declare
that Joan of Arc met her death in a
manner and for a cause that apparently
entitle her to the high honors which the
] present Pope contemplates bestowing
upon her.
The story of Joan of Arc will bear re-
cital now that the cause Of her bestifica-
4 ton is to be considered at Rome; and,
n briefly told. it is as follows: The maid
whom the Church proposes to honor on
4 her altars was the daughter Of rustic Of
I Lorraine, Jacques d'Aro. who had mar
ried Isabeau de Vouthon; and she was
born at Domremy about the year 141l.
Her childhood was mostly spent in ths
ields around her native village, for she
h acted, like many another French girl,
& the role OF shepherdesa to her fathers
docks; but it was noticed that she spent
much Of her time in the village church,
N N and she could often be found praying be-
lore some wsypide image Of the Virgin
ssnd Chile, OF whom there ware many