9 Mai : Hommage National à Sainte Jeanne d'Arc

From DICI
France: French to Render Homage to St. Joan of Arc

The association Civitas sumons all the French to pay homage to the secondary patron saint of France on Sunday, May 9, 2010, inviting them to gather round a flag bearing the arms of St. Joan of Arc, at 3 p.m., Place Saint-Augustin (Paris, 8th).

In his press release, Alain Escada, secretary general of the Institut Civitas recalled “that by giving Joan to France as her patron saint, the Church sets her before us as a particular model to imitate,” and “how Joan of Arc’s campaign had inspired the contemplative St. Theresa of Lisieux,” who called her her “dear sister.”

On March 2, 1922, Pius XI declared the Maid of Orleans, “admired and venerated especially by all the Catholics of France as the heroine of the motherland, St. Joan of Arc, virgin, secondary patroness of France.” The pope recalled that “no one can doubt that it was under the auspices of the Virgin that she had received and fulfilled her mission to save France,” and “that she undertook with a virile heart so great a work, that she remained fearless in the face of drawn swords and spotless in the midst of the license of the camps, that she delivered her country from its supreme peril and re-established the destiny of France.”

Pope Pius XI concludes by asking that “these present Letters be and remain forever firm, valid and effective, that they obtain and keep their effects full and entire, that they be, now and in the future, for all the French nation, a most generous pledge of heavenly succor.”

Institut Civitas, 17 rue des chasseurs, 95100 Argenteuil — telephone: [33] 1. 34.11.16.94

Institut Civitas — e-mail: secrétariat@civitas-institut.com