The Real Joan of Arc

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

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On January 6th people around the world came together to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the birth of St. Joan of Arc, the brave peasant girl from the French countryside who in 1429 lifted the English siege of Orléans, walloped the enemy army and led her king to be crowned at Reims.

The magic of Joan's story that she should have been born on so important a Christian holiday, the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating Christ's baptism and the coming of the Magi is fortuitous, except that, like so much of the irresistible mystery surrounding Joan, this date, accepted by so many for so long as fact, was almost certainly created six centuries ago as a deliberate fiction for political purposes.


That neither Joan's date of birth nor her baptism was ever recorded is not in historical dispute. Indeed, Joan herself did not know when she was born. "As far as I know, [I am] about 19 years old," she testified to her inquisitors at her Trial of Condemnation in January 1431. There was nothing unusual in this. People in the 15th century did not celebrate individual birthdays, and there was certainly no need to record so mundane an event for a member of the lower classes, and a female to boot. Instead, the general populace celebrated saints' days.



The source for the Jan. 6 date was a French aristocrat by the name of Perceval de Boulainvilliers. Perceval was a member of the royal court who fancied himself a poet. He had not known of Joan's existence until she showed up unannounced in Chinon and begged to see the dauphin. What he did know was that she had ended the siege of Orléans in a week and that this victory, the first sign of life in years in the dauphin's otherwise moribund campaign against the English, could be used to coax allies into the French camp.

Over time, this date, like so much of the legend deliberately fashioned around Joan, was accepted as historical fact.


Which is a shame because of all the stories in the world, Joan's is one of the least in need of embellishment. She should not be remembered because she showed the dauphin some trinket, or was an illegitimate member of the French royal family, or revealed secrets that no one else knew (all of which are, like the Jan. 6 date, almost certainly mythological). What makes Joan an iconic figure, as inspirational today as she was six centuries ago, was her faith, her unswerving dedication to her cause and, above all, her astounding bravery.