Jeanne d'Arc, 1429

On this date, April 29th, 1429, St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431) led the French force in relieving the city of Orléans, which had been under siege from the English since the previous October.

Having been counseled by St. Michael and other angels, as well as St. Margaret (a 4th century martyr), St. Catherine of Alexandria, and others, the Maid of Domremy acted out of an abundance of patriotic love to help her fellow Frenchmen. At first she balked - "I am a poor girl; I do not know how to ride or fight," she protested. Her Heavenly counselors told her, however, "It is God who commands it.”

Joan's divine mission was miraculously confirmed in the court of the Dauphine, after which she prophesied how Orléans would be delivered. The details of her remarks are recorded in a letter written by Sire de Rotslaer, in which he wrote that the Maid "would save Orléans and would compel the English to raise the siege, that she herself in a battle before Orléans would be wounded by a shaft but would not die of it, and that the King, in the course of the coming summer, would be crowned at Reims..."

Before entering upon her campaign, Joan summoned the King of England to withdraw his troops from French soil. The English commanders were furious at the audacity of the demand, but Joan by a rapid movement entered Orléans on April 30th. Her presence there at once worked wonders. By May 8th the English forts which encircled the city had all been captured, and the siege raised, though on the 7th the Last Crusader was wounded in the breast by an arrow.