The Pop-Culture icon of Joan of Arc does not match the Catholic Saint National Catholic Register

While secular art projects around the saint flourish in the US, it’s worth remembering that none of her work can be explained without God.

Saint Joan of Arc is a constant source of inspiration for Western artists, especially in the United States, who have made this 13th-century saint the heroine of so many of their contemporary works – sometimes based on the most fanciful, ideological narratives. away from the life and work of the Maid of Orleans, reducing her to a feminist icon or figurehead of class struggle.

A recent one article on CNN examined why, 600 years after her birth, she is still considered an admired figure in pop culture. The author describes her as the ultimate expression of female power, managing to change the course of French history by crowning a king, Charles VII, despite her humble past. The song also marks a resurgence of references to the French saint in recent months in the world of culture, from singer Chappell Roan. performance at the VMAs, futuristic horsewomen dressed by self-proclaimed “genderless” designer Jeanne Friot at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, and most recently director Baz Luhrmann announcement of a future film.

From literature to cinema, from music to fashion and even manga, few historical figures can boast of being the muse of so many artists, for better or for worse.

Where did this enduring popularity come from? Historically, it is relatively recent, it began to appear only in the 19th century, several centuries after her death. One reason for this is that there was no comprehensive historiographical work prior to its publication Condemnation and rehabilitation process of Jeanne d’Arc (“The Condemnation and Rehabilitation Trials of Joan of Arc”) by Jules Quicherat in the 1840s.

The story of her life struck a chord with the French intellectual elite of the time, especially the republican and anticlerical movements who saw her as a model of strength and moral rectitude in the face of a decadent monarchy and as a victim of the institutional Church.

As the heroine who liberated France from England during the Hundred Years’ War, she was obviously an ideal figure of resistance to foreign invaders in the war propaganda of the first half of the 20th century.

The popularization of this patron saint of France in the US occurred mainly through the feminist movements campaigning for women’s suffrage, according to French historian William Blanc. he pointed out in a 2019 article, citing as an example the founding of the “Joan of Arc Suffrage League” in New York in 1909.

He also suggested that this romantic vision of a pioneer of democracy permeated the American book imaginary. Joan of Arcof the fiercely anti-clerical novelist Mark Twain in 1896, in which she is directly compared to Albert Dreyfusa Jewish soldier famous for being the victim of a judicial conspiracy in 19th century France.

“The Maid of Orleans, a young woman who wears men’s clothes, has indeed become in recent years an androgynous figure who questions the boundaries between genders,” Blanc wrote, also referring to the dystopian from 2017 by the American writer Lidia Yuknavitch. the novel Ioana’s bookwhich depicts the struggle of a young woman named Joan against a dictator, Jean de Men, in a world ruined by the ecological crisis. She is supported in her resistance by a self-proclaimed gender-fluid character named Christine (in reference to the great medieval poet Christine of Pisa).

“One thing is certain: her representation, constantly reinvented to suit different eras and audiences, will no longer have much in common with the prophetess of the Middle Ages,” commented the historian.

But these forms of misappropriation, however haphazard and misplaced, testify to an unquenchable thirst for models of greatness and purity of soul that tends to transcend all ideological divisions. It is a sign of the times that has not escaped the attention of young Catholics, and one that they intend to capitalize on by evangelizing this collective thirst, which also transcends borders.

This is reflected by initiatives such as Jean d’Arc 600a great network of prayer and instruction based on the legacy of the saint launched on the occasion of the sixth centenary of her birth and the multiplication of pilgrimages to revisit the stages of her life in her native land.

The main challenge these days is to make her admirers around the world aware that her whole life was “a proof of the existence of God”, as Pope Benedict XV said on the occasion of Joan of Arc’s canonization in May 16, 1920.

It was indeed a salutary reminder from the Pope, who wittily added that all who tried to explain his life and work without God “were lost in a labyrinth of inextricable labyrinths.”

“France is rightly proud of Joan,” he declared, “and the Holy Church triumphs in her too!”