Saint Jeanne d'Arc
Posted on 02/13/2006 10:47:07 AM PST by NYer
A French medical team is to spend six months analysing the presumed remains of Joan of Arc, who was burned at the age of 19 in 1431, the daily Le Parisien reported Monday.
"We will use the remains that were recovered from beneath the pyre, essentially bones and skin fragments that have been preserved over generations," said Philippe Charlier, a known specialist in the field of forensic medicine. A complete DNA analysis of the remains will be carried out, he added.
The examination is intended mainly to definitively identify the remains.
The girl known the world over as "The Maid of Orleans" was burned at the stake after being convicted of heresy by the British authorities whose armies she had been instrumental in routing at Orleans during the Hundred Years War.
Beginning at the age of 13, she began hearing voices, which were accompanied by a blaze of light, that she said guided her actions.
She became the heroine of her country at the age of 17. More than two decades after her death, Pope Callixtus III reopened her case and overturned the original conviction. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XV in May 1920.
"In fact, we know almost nothing about Joan of Arc," Charlier told Le Parisien. "We don't even have a portrait of her. Even the armour that has been attributed to her is largely posthumous."
How are they going to "definitively" identify the remains? Are they wondering if that's really her in the tomb? This raises more questions than it answers.
(Sounds like an attempt by liberals to paint her as a sczhizophrenic and former pope to me).
Oh, really?!?!?! Sounds like total BS, to me.
1) Is there anything left to identify? She was burnt to death, for Pete's sake!
2) Identify? Like, what? we have some relatives for comparison?
It's ludicrous.
Yes. I agree with x5452 and you. Something doesn't sound right. It sounds like they're raiders of the lost Ark.
Gerlado, paging Geraldo.
LOL! That is exactly what I was thinking.
I just read the biography of Joan of Arc written by Mark Twain. Very, very impressive. But he says that virtually every physical relic or artifact associated with her (her sword, her standard, her clothing, and of course bones) were systematically destroyed during the French Revolution. I would not be surprised, however, if she has relatives, descendants of her siblings and cousins, still living in the area of Domremy.
I heard rumours that they're making another Indiana Jones movie ... maybe he can tackle this.
"In fact, we know almost nothing about Joan of Arc," Charlier told Le Parisien. "We don't even have a portrait of her. Even the armour that has been attributed to her is largely posthumous."
Hmmm. Well, Mark Twain apparently dug up a lot of material this gentleman doesn't know about when researching his "Joan of Arc"! Effectively an atheist, Twain nevertheless wrote this tribute Joan, declaring it the best and most personally satisfying thing he ever wrote. It would seem that *something* would have kept Twain's interest alive for the seven years he researched his book of hundreds of pages.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
There is a statue of her in Wichita since Oreans is a sister city.
Joan of Arc is one of my favorite people.
favorite people in history, of course.
And that is despite the fact that I normally would like England a lot more than France.
Grrrrr...
I had assigned the children to do an oral report on someone famous in history. One of the boys was assigned Joan of Arc.
The next day the boy came into class and placed his encyclopedia on the table saying, "How am I going to do a report on this lady?? She was captured by cannibals who beat her up and than ate her."
By my expression and that of the rest of the classroom, he knew he had our attention.
"Really Ms Ware it is right here, They BEATIFIED her and than Cannibalized her and her feast day is May 1st.
.... and they've been fighting like teenage girls ever since. Talk about learning the wrong lessons!
Amazing story. Beyond words.
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