of ✝️ the Day🕊️🔥*
*Feast: February 4*
*✠ St. Joan of Valois ✠*
Nun and Religious Foundress:
Born: April 23, 1464
Nogent-le-Roi, County of Dreux
Died: February 4, 1505 (Aged 40)
Bourges, Duchy of Berry
Venerated in:
Roman Catholic Church
(Sisters of the Annunciation of Mary)
Beatified: June 18, 1742
Pope Benedict XIV
Canonized: May 28, 1950
Pope Pius XII
Joan of France, Duchess of Berry was briefly Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XII, in between the death of her brother, King Charles VIII, and the annulment of her marriage. After that, she retired to her domain, where she soon founded the monastic Order of the Sisters of the Annunciation of Mary, where she served as abbess. From this Order later sprang the religious congregation of the Apostolic Sisters of the Annunciation, founded in 1787 to teach the children of the poor. She was canonized on 28 May 1950 and is known in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Joan of Valois.
Family:
Joan was born on 23 April 1464 in the castle of Pierre II de Brézé, a trusted supporter of her grandfather, King Charles VII of France, at Nogent-le-Roi in the County of Dreux. She was the second daughter of King Louis XI of France and of his second wife Charlotte of Savoy; her surviving siblings were King Charles VIII of France and Anne of France. Shortly after her birth, the king signed an agreement to marry her to his second cousin Louis, the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII of France, who was aged two at the time. Jeanne was born sickly and deformed. In Women Saints – Lives of Faith and Courage, Kathleen Jones says that Jeanne had a hump on her back and walked with a limp, suggesting that she had curvature of the spine.
Often away on royal duties, King Louis entrusted his daughters, Joan and Anne, to the Baron François de Linières and his wife, Anne de Cullen. The couple, who were childless, lavished affection on Joan. Taking charge of her education, they had her taught both poetry and mathematics, painting, embroidery and how to play the lute.
The couple were also faithful Catholics and instilled in the members of their household a solid grounding in the faith. At a young age, her father asked her to name the confessor she wanted. She gave him the only name she knew, that of Friar Jean de La Fontaine, Guardian of the Franciscan friary in Amboise. The king approved her choice and appointed the friar to this post. Despite the distance between them, he would travel regularly to hear the princess's confession. Joan began to develop a strong pleasure in prayer and would pass long periods in the castle chapel. The baron supported her in this and had a path paved between the castle and the chapel built for easier walking in poor weather. Under the friar's guidance, she was admitted into the Third Order of St. Francis.
In 1471 King Louis XI ordered the practice of praying the Hail Mary throughout the kingdom for peace. Joan had a strong attachment to this particular prayer. She would later write that it was in that same year that she had received a prophecy from the Virgin Mary that someday she would found a religious community in honour of Our Lady.
Marriage:
In 1473 King Louis had signed marriage contracts for his daughters. On 8 September 1476, at the age of 12, Joan was married to the young Louis, Duke of Orléans in Montrichard. Louis of Orléans was compelled to be married to his handicapped and supposedly sterile cousin Joan. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. Louis was displeased at the forced marriage, and his treatment of his new wife reflected this.
King Louis died in 1483 and was succeeded by his son Charles, but as he was still a child, his sister, Anne de Beaujeu, was made Regent of the kingdom. By 1484, the duke had begun a series of military campaigns against the kingdom. This lasted until 1488 when he was taken captive by the royal forces. During this period, he fathered an illegitimate son, Michel de Bussy, who was later appointed the Bishop of Bourges. Joan administered his domain during his imprisonment, especially the Italian cities of Milan and Asti. Joan, imagining virtues in her husband that did not exist, exerted herself to mitigate his sufferings and to get him freed. Duke Louis was released in 1491. Within a few years, he accompanied King Charles in his military campaign in Italy.
When Louis ascended to the throne in April 1498 after the accidental death of Joan's brother, King Charles VIII, he appealed to the pope to have the marriage annulled in order to marry the late king's widow, Anne of Brittany, in the hope of annexing the Duchy of Brittany to the French Crown.
In what has been described as "one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age", Louis did not, as might be expected, argue the marriage to be void due to consanguinity (the general excuse for the dissolution of a marriage at that time). Louis argued that he had been below the legal age of consent (fourteen) to marry and that the marriage had never been consummated due to her physical deformity, and provided a rich variety of detail as to how she was malformed. Joan, unsurprisingly, fought this uncertain charge fiercely, producing witnesses to Louis boasting of having "mounted my wife three or four times during the night." Louis also claimed that his sexual performance had been inhibited by witchcraft; Joan responded by asking how, in that case, he was able to know what it was like to try to make love to her. Joan would likely have won, for Louis's case was exceedingly weak, however, Pope Alexander VI was committed for political reasons to grant the annulment.
The commission of investigation appointed by the pope established that the marriage with Joan was invalid for lack of consent and that it never had been consummated. Accordingly, he ruled against the Queen. The annulment was declared on 15 December 1498. Joan stepped aside, saying that she would pray for her former husband. She was made Duchess of Berry and retired to Bourges, capital of the duchy.
Religious life:
Once settled in her new domain, Joan confided to her spiritual director, the Blessed Gabriel Mary, O.F.M., her call to monastic life. He supported her in this venture, and she began to make plans for the Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a new enclosed religious order in honour of the Annunciation (the announcement to Mary by an angel that she would become the mother of Jesus, although she was a virgin). It was established as an independent branch of the Poor Clares. By May 1500 she had received 11 postulants, the nucleus of the new Order. The Rule of Life she had written for the Order was approved on 12 February 1502 by Pope Alexander. Construction of the first monastery was begun the following year. On Pentecost Sunday 1504, Joan and Friar Gabriel Mary made private commitments to follow the Rule, and thereby established themselves as co-founders of the Order. On 21 November of that same year, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, Joan and the other women publicly and legally committed themselves to the Order.
Joan died on 4 February 1505 and was buried in the chapel of the Annonciade monastery. Her grave, however, was desecrated and her body, found to be incorrupt at that time, was burned by the Huguenots during their sack of Bourges on 27 May 1562. Soon after her death, miracles and healings attributed to her were said to have occurred. The cause for her canonization was begun in 1631 and Pope Benedict XIV beatified her on 21 April 1742. She was canonized on 28 May 1950 by Pope Pius XII.
Comments:
Joan of Valois was a lady extraordinarily ugly and deformed. Because of her ugliness, her husband despised her at a time when the spirit of frivolity had already begun to grow, giving origin to the cult of the beauty of our days. Her husband, who became King of France, refused to live with her. Her father, King Louis XI, was also ashamed to be with her, and only visited her a few times a year.
Placed in this situation of general scorn, she demonstrated a very commendable virtue, that is, she remained secure and confident. She maintained a great dignity and composure that came from an indomitable state of spirit. In effect she responded like this to her situation:
“The reason why people despise me is not a valid one. For the value of a person comes not from the beauty of the body, but from the beauty of the soul. I have value as a princess, a daughter of a king, a wife of a king and a Catholic, and there is no ugliness that can annul these values. This is part of the moral order. Men can think whatever they want, judge whatever they desire, I will behave without arrogance but in full accordance with my dignity.”
She never displayed shame over her situation or showed herself insecure in the face of her ugliness. She never allowed herself self-pity or permitted anyone to look down on her. Even after her marriage was annulled, she carried her cross peacefully and calmly with her head raised high. Repudiated as the spouse of King Louis XII, she received the title of Duchess of Berry and governed over a vast amount of properties. She also founded a religious order, the Order of the Annunciation. She gave, therefore, a great meaning to her life, which was an external expression of her profound moral value. She acquired a virtue that was heroic, and in acknowledgement of this, the Church raised her to the honour of the altars.
What is the lesson for us?
It means that even when people want to despise us, persecute us, or annul things that we have a right to, we should remain secure and certain of our position. For if one knows that he is acting according to Catholic doctrine, he should have a peaceful conscience. The man who acts in accordance with Catholic doctrine has nothing to fear or be ashamed of. Rather, he should be proud of it and self-assured.
Even if the Revolution arrogantly offends or scorns us, our position should be that of St. Joan of Valois. In the face of lies and calumnies, we should carry ourselves the way she did. We should remind ourselves:
“The facts prove that I am acting according to Catholic doctrine. My conscience tells me that there is nothing to reproach in my action. Therefore, before the eyes of God and his Angels, I can be serene and peaceful, certain that I will never be despised by them. It does not matter if men despise me. I have the Catholic Faith and I know that I am following the truth taught by the true Church. Let others think what they will, judge what they want, I will not cede one inch of my position to please them.”
This is the teaching, the lesson of true human dignity given to us by St. Joan of Valois.
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