AUTHOR OF "THE SINS OF SOCIETY," and "SOCIALISM,"

AND PREFACE BY

Ribil Obstat

J. N. STRASSMAIER, S.J.

EDMUNDUS CANONICUS SURMONT

WESTMONASTERII

I DEDICATE THESE LIFE LESSONS
TO

THE DAUGHTERS OF ERIN

WHO,

BECAUSE SO PURE, SO BRAVE, SO TRUE,
MUST BEYOND ALL OTHERS FIND FULFILLED

In

Their ideal of

Patriotism, Catholicism, Heroism

We'll set thy statue in some holy place

And have thee reverenced like a blessed saint. Employ thee, then, sweet virgin, for our good!'

1 King Henry VI, Act iii, Scene 3.

THE arrangements of Divine Providence are inexhaustible. We live in an age when the energies of women are of necessity taking new _directions. The old home life is impossible or insufficient for many of them, and they have to go forth abroad to live often solitary lives, to work out a career unaided, and to enter upon pursuits which until recent times were confined to the stronger sex.

It is useless to ignore this tendency. It arises from causes, which cannot be controlled. But while this transformation and development of womanly activity goes on, it is all-important that the sacred characteristics which give to womanhood its power and its charm should not be overshadowed by the stress and toil which accompany the new conditions in which it is now placed.

And in this moment the Church of God sets up before our gaze the beautiful figure of Blessed Joan the Maid, called by God from home and given a work in which many brave men had failed. She did her work, she went in and out in camp and city, but she still remained the gentle, simple maiden.

May her story, told so eloquently by the writer of the following pages, teach our Catholic maidens, and women of every degree, how to do whatever God puts into their hands to do, and yet keep untouched and bright _all the glory of their womanhood.

X FRANCIS,

May 12, 1910.

HER CHILDHOOD AND CALL TO ARMS Page 1

The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the wise : and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong."—

I Cor. i, 27-29.

HER RELIEF OF ORLEANS AND CROWNING OF THE KING Page 29

She kept him safe from his enemies, and she defended him from seducers. . . . She forsook not the just when he was sold, but delivered him from sinners ; she went down with him into the pit; and in bands she left him not, till she brought him the sceptre of the kingdom, and power against those that oppressed him."—Wisdom x, 12-14.

HER CAPTURE AND INIQUITOUS CONDEMNATION Page 59

"In Thy sight are all they that afflict me: my heart bath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none."—Ps. lxviii, 21-22.

HER DEATH AT THE STAKE AND HER TRIUMPH Page 93

Behold I am in your hands - do with me what is good and right in your eyes. But know ye, and understand, that if you put me to death, you will shed innocent blood against your own selves, and against this city, and the inhabitants thereof. For in truth the Lord sent me to you, to speak all these words in your hearing. "—,fer. xxvi, 14-15.

HER REHABILITATION AND WORLD-WIDE APOTHEOSIS Page 129

"I beseech those that shall read this book, that they be not shocked at these calamities, but that they consider the things that happened, not as being for the destruction, but for the correction of our nation . . . for though He chastise His people with adversity, He forsaketh them not."—II Mac. vi.

The Voices and the Vision. (Colour) Frontispiece

From the drawing by Gaston Bussilre.

"She can neither read nor write" Page 1

From a bronze medallion by the Bromsgrove Guild of Artists.

"For God, King, and Country" Page 21

From a silver medallion by the Bromsgrove Guild of Artists.

The Scene of her Mission inspires the Maid Page 32

From the painting by Gaston Bussilre.

"Rheims, at last!" (Colour) . Page 46

From the drawing by Gaston Bussiere.

La Pucelle de Dieu Page 59

From a bronze statuette _by the Bromsgrove Guild of Artists.

The Maid with her Armour before the Shrine Page 70

From the painting by Gaston Bussiere.

"She yields her limbs, but keeps her Faith" Page 8o

From the painting by Gaston Bussilre.

"At her best." (Colour) Page 84

From the drawing by Gaston Bussiere.

Looking beyond whence help never fails Page 86

From the painting by Gaston Bussilre.

"The Land afar off." (Colour) . Page 129

From the drawing by Gaston Bussiere.

1412 . Birth at Domremy.

1424. First visitation.

1428. First interview with Robert de Baudricourt

1429. Meets the Dauphin at Chinon.

1429 Raises the siege of Orleans.

1429 Coronation of Charles VII at Reims.

1429 Attack on Paris.

1430. Capture at Compiegne.

1430Sold to the English, and brought to Rouen

1431 Trial at Rouen.

1431 Condemnation and death.

1456 Rehabilitation by Pope Calixtus III.

1909 Beatification by Pope Pius X.

THIS little volume of " Life Lessons from Joan of Arc " is offered to the world only because many of my friends, in different spheres and stations of life, have requested me to publish it.

Some have gone out of their way to assure me that what I have said in my various lectures and talks about the blessed heroine has in no small degree helped and encouraged them to fight the good fight, and to keep the faith. In other words, the inspiring example of blessed Joan of Arc has brought home to them the serious and sacred character of their own mission in life.

For instance, the Maid has forced her sex to learn from the study of her own life's story that, till vital spirituality penetrates and permeates a woman's everyday life, she cannot even pretend to exercise, in society and upon the world at large, that refining and spiritualizing influence which is her special charm as well as her principal prerogative and primal duty.

If to-day woman is losing her hold upon man for his good, if she is striving after the impossible, and seeking to shift her centre of social gravity in the hope of realizing herself in a sphere where God does not want her, and will not have her, the reason is not far to seek. Woman is neglecting her high call, her true mission, because she ignores those Christian ideals which should inspire and actuate the life of her sex, no matter in what state of being she may happen to be placed.

"The imperious need of to-day is ideals," says a recent writer in the Times. "At no time," he continues," has there ever been a greater need for ethical and spiritual ideals than now, when on all sides the material things of life are apt to assume undue prominence."

If this be so—and who that is observant will care to deny it?—then, no better service can be done to the man and woman of to-day than to lift up before them both the portrait of a womanly woman who, when the bugle call of duty summoned her, could become as a manly man, who always and everywhere, in peace and war, at Court, in camp, and at home, lived up to her high Christian ideals, and nowhere forgot her true womanly character and her divine mission.

Blessed Joan the Maid has something to say both to man and woman, to boy and girl, irrespective of their religion, their nationality, or their political outlook.