Novena to Saint Joan of Arc

Updated : Sat 13 Nov 2021 AM (UTC +1)

Cette prière en Français | Esta oración en Español |

Recite after the daily prayer:

Saint Joan of Arc, your martyrdom is God's great victory over our enemies. Intercede, from the Kingdom of Heaven, that we may be preserved from wars against our country and from assaults on our faith. May France remember that she is the Elder Daughter of the Church. Let us pray to You, Lord, for You have blessed our country by giving us Saint Joan of Arc: encourage many more vocations to keep the apostolic mission of France intact. Through Jesus, the Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Then recite an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory be to the Father.

Day One

Joan, the Lord has commissioned the Archangel Michael to appear to you and to announce your mission to save the kingdom of France. Jeanne, your great desire to serve God and to do everything to please him, make you pronounce the "fiat" in spite of your fears of not being worthy and capable of accomplishing this mission. Heaven has given you a sword to fight with, and the voices of St Catherine and St Margaret to guide you. Intercede so that we may always respond to our vocation. Amen.

Day Two

Jeanne, you visit the Dauphin of France. You reveal to him that he is the true heir of France, and son of a king, that he will be crowned at Reims and that you have come to help him fulfil this desire of Heaven. You then fight many battles against the English, and always emerge victorious. You also fight against sin in your own camp and you ask your soldiers to return to a state of grace. Intercede now so that our country may remember its baptism and return to the sacraments. Amen.

Day Three

In Easter week of this year, 1430, while you are in a ditch in Melun, the voices of St Catherine and St Margaret tell you that you will be taken prisoner before the feast of St John and that God will help you during this ordeal. You are then overwhelmed with anguish and tempted not to submit to the Will of the Lord in order to save your life. Pray for us, that we will always do God's will, not our own. Amen.

Day Four

It is on the 26th of May, after a hard battle, that you are taken by an archer of the opposing camp. You are thus arrested and accused by the Inquisition of heresy and idolatry. Despite your fears and anxieties, you allow yourself to be imprisoned. You trust your voices and ask for their intercession in order to answer the questions that are put to you. Ask God for us to have the courage and boldness to affirm our faith. Amen.

Day Five

You are morally tortured, besieged by numerous and endless interrogations, abandoned and betrayed by all, including the King, treated as a prisoner of war, threatened physically by your cell guards, accused of many faults you have not committed, without a lawyer. Always docile to the advice of your voices, you answer fearlessly to all that is asked of you. Intercede so that we may always have recourse to prayer in our difficulties. Amen.

Day six

All your accusers try hard to make you fail, to make you contradict the facts you relate; they accuse you, threaten you with physical torture, harass you unceasingly for hours on end; in vain, you always have an answer to all the questions, until one day, unable to take it any more, frightened by death, you deny everything. Then, by the grace of God, you courageously accept martyrdom and go back on your denials. Despite the recognition of some of your judges of the divine intervention in your conduct, you are condemned to death by fire. Pray that France will raise its face and remember its promises to God. Amen.

Day Seven

Jeanne, you are supernaturally supported by Heaven, but you cannot escape the anguish of the sentence. You would have preferred "to be beheaded seven times rather than burned to ashes. "On the stake, once bound, you ask forgiveness of the English and all your enemies for the battles fought against them, and, with a loud and clear voice, you forgive all those who condemned you. "My saints did not deceive me, my mission was from God. Saint Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine, all of you, my brothers and sisters in Heaven, come to my aid... "In the midst of the flames, you look at the cross that is presented to you, and you pronounce the name of Jesus before you die. Be our model in obedience, in trust in God, and in perseverance in our mission. Amen.

Day Eight

As the executioner extinguishes the fire so that all may see the disfigured corpse of the one who made them tremble, he pushes aside the ashes and the miracle appears before their frightened eyes: your heart is there, filled with ruddy blood and seeming to live still! Sulphur and oil are then poured on it, the fire starts again and then goes out again, leaving it still intact. Worried about this miracle and fearing the emotion of the people, the cardinal of England ordered that your bones, your ashes and above all your heart be thrown immediately into the Seine. The executioner then said: "I am very much afraid of being damned for having burned a saint." The crowd shouted: "We are all lost because a saint has been burned! "Help us to serve God and seek only the glory of Heaven. Amen.

Day Nine

After your death, the prosperity of the English in France died. Since the burning of Rouen, they have known only disappointment and defeat. To their great shame and confusion, they were rejected from all the countries they had conquered. All those who had misjudged La Pucelle died soon after her death. Bishop Cauchon, enriched by the King of England, died suddenly; he was excommunicated by the Pope and his bones were thrown to the ferocious beasts. Thus was fulfilled the prediction made to Joan in her prison by his voices: "You shall have help. You will be delivered by a great victory. Take everything in stride. Do not worry about your martyrdom. You will come at last to the Kingdom of Paradise. "Let the resurrection be the only goal of our life. Be present with us and contribute further to the sanctification of our country. Amen.

Life of Saint Joan of Arc
1412-1431
Feast day on 30 May
Saint Joan of Arc shows once again, and in a particularly striking way, two things: how much God loves France and how true it is that He is pleased to choose the weakest instruments for the accomplishment of the greatest things. Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, in what is now Lorraine, on 6 January 1412; her parents, Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée, were farmers who worked their small property. The first word her mother taught her was the name of Jesus; all her knowledge was summed up in the Father, the Ave, the Creed and the essential elements of religion. She often came close to the tribunal of penance and Holy Communion; all contemporary testimonies agree that she was "a good girl, loving and fearing God", praying much to Jesus and Mary. Her parish priest was able to say of her: "I have never seen a better Christian, and there is none like her in the whole parish.

France was then at the mercy of the English and the Burgundians, their allies; the situation of King Charles VII was desperate. But God remembered His people, and in order to make it clear that salvation came from Him alone, He used a humble country girl. Jeanne was thirteen years old when the Archangel St. Michael appeared to her for the first time, around noon, in her father's garden, gave her advice for her conduct and declared that God wanted to save France through her. The visions multiplied; the Archangel protector of France was accompanied by St. Catherine and St. Margaret, whom God gave to Joan as advisers and support. Up to now, Joan's life has been the idyll of a pious shepherdess; it was to become the epic of a valiant and inspired warrior; she was sixteen years old when King Charles VII, convinced of her mission by miraculous signs, entrusted her with the leadership of his armies.

Soon Orleans was delivered, the English trembled and fled before a young girl. A few months later, the king was crowned in Reims. In the divine view, Joan's life was to be crowned by the apotheosis of martyrdom: she was betrayed at Compiègne, sold to the English, and after a long imprisonment, where she suffered every outrage, condemned and burned in Rouen (30 May 1431). Her soul escaped from her body in the form of a dove, and her heart was not touched by the flames.

The Church rehabilitated her memory and elevated her to the rank of the Saints. Joan of Arc remains the glory of France, her powerful and beloved protector. She was declared her secondary patroness by a Brief of Pope Pius XI on 2 March 1922. Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Mame, 1950.

Cette prière en Français | Esta oración en Español |

Share this prayer with a friend: