The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 7th, 1929. MARTYR AND SAINT.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 7th, 1929. MARTYR AND SAINT.

On February there began at the iittie village of Vaueouleurs, on the ■order of Lorraine, a series of solemn I-Jinmemorations in honour of Joan 01 .re. 'i'lie ceremonies are to last a lonsiderable time, possibly at intervals •>ntil May Bth. the dale on which the ..underfill Maid set the seal on her -line for all time by the capture of tcleans. The French people, says a ■vriter in the Auckland Star, do wcl! honour her memory. For no patriot or hero in all their splendid history ever did more for France than this little peasant girl of Domremy ave hundred years ago. Born on January 6th., 1412, she was from an earh age set apart from all by her devout iniuiire and by the visions and the voices that from her thirteenth year (/.•came her constant companions, li. those days Franco was a conquered I; .ml, its capital was in the hands o.' ilie liated English invader, its king, '■ho lives in history as Charles VII.. was then only the Dauphin, an uncrownedl fugitive. Then there canm forth from her peasant h-oine, in the [diet seclusion of the Lorraine countryside. a simple girl of eighteen, unI■■•tiered and untaught, to seek out the Dauphin, to declare to him that God had imposed upon her the sacred mission of freeing France from servitude, and to put herself at the head of his armies, which never ceased their viet rious career till the English yoke was broken and Charles Vii crowned at Rlicims, reigned at Paris, i ranee’s undisputed king. Countless books have been written concerning the a hievements of the Maid of Orleans, a.'id the nature of her beliefs and the true diameter of her mission are still *.i '■ jEoct/i round, which controversy rages. But the main facts of the rc••••rd are indisputable, though in themselves they are so marvellous as to bor-

der oil the incredible. In an age when 1' rco ruled the world, at a time when France, crushed by 80 years of wsir seemed to have surrendered all hope of ultimate victory and freedom, Jeanne d’Arc, an illiterate girl of eighteen, .did actually declare that she was sent by Heaven to drive the English before her and to set the Dauphin on the throne of his fathers, and she did actually accomplish her prophesies. Hiding for many days in armour at, tno head of a “forlorn hope,” impelled by patriotism on a desperate adventure, she fought valiantly in the foremost ranks and drove the English in headlong rout before her. Naturally enough, some supernatural explanation seemed necessary to account for such a miracle, and to the English she was a witch who had made alliance with the Powers of Darkness. This much scorns dear, that the secret of her success was her marvellous courage and her absolute sincerity, based as they both were on her supreme confidence in the favour and aid of Heaven. “The miracle of Joan: of Arc” was the purity and nobility of her nature, her splendid devotion to her country’s cause, and above all else her supreme faitli in the will of C.od which inspired her to such prodigious efforts and such marvellous triumphs. The English captured her at last and sold her to her enemies, and they burned her as a witch in the market place at Rouen. “God forgive us,” said one who stood by; “his day we have slain a saint.” And it is as a saint, after the lapse

of five centuries, that she is honoured and venerated to-day.