Joan of Arc

The trilemma of Joan: liar, lunatic, or Lord's anointed. It took over 500 years for the third to triumph over the first two, both in the Church and in France. But these two canonizations—as a Catholic saint, and as Patroness of France—were separate tasks, performed by separate supporters. These are the writings of the leading promoter of her second canonization: as Patroness of France.

Beginning with earlier, more lyrical writings on Joan of Arc, this volume's core is a collection of articles written during World War I, when Maurice Barrès proposed a law for a national feast of Joan of Arc and patriotism, a feast which finally came to fruition in 1920, and is still celebrated in France to this day. The earlier, lyrical writings, as well as the appendices drawing from Barrès' notebooks, show the complexity of his thought regarding the Maiden of Orléans.

For Barrès, Joan was not simply the patroness of France: she was also the patroness of his homeland, the divided region of Alsace-Lorraine; even more, as she herself willed, she is the patroness of all of Christendom, including her former enemy, England. All three of these patronages are explored in this collection, which also offers readers a glimpse of a great, little-known French thinker and author.

Maurice Barrès (1862-1923) was a Lorrainer politician, novelist, traveloguist, and political theorist. He is best-known for his 1913 novel The Sacred Hill, though his writings were legion.