WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS MAY 30-JUNE 05

May 30

St. Joan of Arc, b.1412 d.1431 A.D. Patron of soldiers and France. St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France. On January 6, 1412, Joan of Arc was born to pious parents of the French peasant class, at the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine. At a very early age, she heard voices: those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret. At first the messages were personal and general. Then at last came the crowning order. In May, 1428, her voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. For at that time the English king was after the throne of France, and the Duke of Burgundy, the chief rival of the French king, was siding with him and gobbling up evermore French territory. After overcoming opposition from churchmen and courtiers, the seventeen year old girl was given a small army with which she raised the siege of Orleans on May 8, 1429. She then enjoyed a series of spectacular military successes, during which the King was able to enter Rheims and be crowned with her at his side.

In May 1430, as she was attempting to relieve Compiegne, she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English when Charles and the French did nothing to save her. After months of imprisonment, she was tried at Rouen by a tribunal presided over by the infamous Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who hoped that the English would help him to become archbishop. Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of theology, Joan was trapped into making a few damaging statements. When she refused to retract the assertion that it was the saints of God who had commanded her to do what she had done, she was condemned to death as a heretic, sorceress, and adulteress, and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was nineteen years old. Some thirty years later, she was exonerated of all guilt and she was ultimately canonized in 1920, making official what the people had known for centuries. St. Joan was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

May 31

St. Mechtildis, 1160 A.D. Benedictine abbess and miracle worker. She was the daughter of Count Berthold of Andechs, in modem Bavaria, Germany. The count and his wife, Sophia, founded a monastery on their es­tate at Diessen, Bavaria, and placed Mechtildis there at the age of five. She became a Benedictine nun, and then abbess. In 1153 the bishop of Augsburg placed her in charge of Edelstetten Abbey. Mechtildis was revered for her mystical gifts and miracles. She died at Diessen on

June 1

St. Candida. The village Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset, mentioned in the will of King Alfred as Hwitn Cyrcian, presumably takes its name from St. Wite, and its church is dedicated in her honor. In the north transept of the church is her shrine.

June 2

St. Blandina. Blandina was a slave in the second century and patroness of young girls. After the miraculous victory obtained by the prayers of the Christians under Marcus Aurelius, in 174, the Church enjoyed a kind of peace, though it was often disturbed in particular places by popular commotions, or by the superstitious fury of certain governors. This appears from the violent persecution which was raised three years after the aforesaid victory, at Vienne and Lyons, in 177, while St. Pothinus was bishop of Lyons, and St. Irenaeus, who had been sent there by St. Polycarp out of Asia, was a priest of that city. Many of the principal Christians were brought before the Roman governor. Among them was the slave, Blandina; and her mistress, also a Christian. Blandina was tormented a whole day through, but she bore it all with joy till the executioners gave up, confessing themselves outdone. Red-hot plates were held to the sides of Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne, till his body became one great sore, and he looked no longer like a man; but in the midst of his tortures he was "bedewed and strengthen by the stream of heavenly water which flows from the side of Christ." Meantime, many confessors were kept in prison, and with them were some who had been terrified into apostasy

June 3

St. Paula, 273 A.D. Martyr and virgin. According to custom, she was a virgin in Nicomedia who was moved to give assistance and care to St. Lucillian. She was arrested for aiding Lucillian and four Christian youths and was tortured and sent to Constantinople, where she was beheaded.

June 4

St. Breaca, 5th or 6th century. Disciple of St. Brigid, also called Breque, Branca, and Branka. She went from Ireland to Cornwall, England, about 460 A.D. There Breaca and her companions settled on the bank of the Hoyle River.

St. Saturnina. Virgin martyr. She was a maiden from Germany who journeyed to France and there died while defending herself against some attack upon her chastity.

St. Nennoc, Virgin. She served as an abbess of a convent in Armorica, France, after following St. Germanus of Auxerre there.

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