Original subtitles

-These are... Stories of the saints.

-Place your hands on the holy gospels

And swear to tell the truth before the lord your god.

-I don't know what you wish to ask me.

Perhaps you might ask me things I cannot answer.

-You must answer everything.

-Some questions I will answer.

On certain matters I have no right to speak.

-You must answer every question asked of you, truly.

-I do nothing except by revelation.

-You must answer.

-I swear to tell the truth

About the things I know concerning the faith.

-What is your name?

-Joan.

I am joan the maid.

-You believe you were sent by god?

-Yes.

To save France.

It is what I was born for.

-Where were you born?

-In the town of domremy, near the village of greux.

-Where was the principal church?

-In greux.

-Where were you baptized?

-In the church of domremy.

My father was called jacques, my mother isabelle.

It was my mother who gave me my belief.

-Joan was born into the middle of the hundred years war,

Which was actually a series of wars

Over the control of what is now modern-day France.

On the one side, there were the english

And the french burgundians.

And on the other side, there were the french armagnacs.

Of course, resulting in a civil war.

And the ultimate question was --

Who would become king of France?

-You believe god hates the english?

-I know nothing of god's love or hatred for the english.

But I know the english will soon be driven out of France.

-Joan experienced the horrors of this war.

Many of joan's neighbors were murdered by the english,

Their homes were ransacked and burned,

And their women were raped.

And it's in the midst of this violence

That joan first heard the voices.

-The first time I was afraid.

After the third time, I knew it was sent by god.

I knew it was the voices of angels --

St. Michael, and then st. Margaret and st. Catherine.

The voices told me they would show me what to do,

That it was ordained by god.

-What did the voice tell you?

-That I, joan,

Must go away and raise the siege laid to the city of orléans.

-But how?

-That first, I must make my way to robert de baudricourt

At the fortress of vaucouleurs.

That he would give me people, to go with me to meet my king.

I must meet baudricourt, please.

Hello, please, can you help me?

I must go in the castle because...

Sir?

-No, no, no, no, not you.

-Please, sir, I must go inside. I must meet the dauphin.

God has commanded me to meet --

-For the last time, girl, you may not pass.

Not yesterday, not the day before, not tomorrow.

God said so.

-Please.

-Are you alright, child?

-No, no.

I have no more time to waste. No one will help me!

I have no more time. I need to see baudricourt.

And I am the only person who can restore the kingdom for France.

It is god's will. I have no choice.

I have no choice.

-God willing, I will take you to baudricourt

And lead you to the king.

To present yourself to the dauphin,

You'll need fine clothes.

I know of a woman at the edge of the market square

Who makes fine dresses.

-It has been revealed to me

How I should appear before the dauphin.

-One of the messages that was revealed to joan by the voices,

Was to dress in men's clothing.

Which was unthinkable.

Joan was finally taken to the dauphin's castle in chinon.

Now, for security reasons, to be undercover,

Charles always dressed in ordinary clothes to blend in.

Joan had never laid eyes on the dauphin,

But when she went in there, she walked right up to him.

-Apologies, my lord. I will remove --

-Most noble lord dauphin, I am sent by god

To bring aid to you and your kingdom.

I humbly ask that you turn over your kingdom

To the king of heaven, whose revelations have guided me here

And will continue to guide me on the field of battle.

The lord our god has made it known to me

That he will restore you to your original estate.

-I see before me...A girl.

-I am...

-A headstrong girl, clothed in the finery of a man.

What would compel a daughter of France to do as you have done?

-Everything I do and every word I speak now

Is given to me by god and spoken to me by the angels.

I have been sent to answer your most fervent prayers.

-There is one other possibility of course.

And it must be ruled out.

-For the dauphin, trusting in joan immediately...

This was unthinkable.

So, she was questioned by men of the church for weeks.

And then her maidenhead had to be verified.

Establishing her virginity was essential.

-She is a virgin!

-You are the daughter of a farmer.

How can you hope to deliver us victory on the field of battle?

-I know nothing of war.

Only that I will go boldly into combat

And leave the rest to our lord god and none other.

-What do you ask of us?

-I ask for horses, armor and arms

For me, and a company of men.

-What sign did you give your king that you were from god?

-Go ask him. -I'm asking you.

-I have always told you, you will not drag that out of me.

If you want to know, go ask him.

-It is said that joan told the dauphin things about himself,

That she could only have known by revelation.

And that that's how he came to fully believe

That she had received the word of god.

-O god, please help us to be brave, to be courageous.

Please grant us strength and protection.

-Which did you like better, your standard, or your sword?

-I liked my standard 40 times more than my sword.

I bore my standard when we went forward against the enemy

To avoid killing. I have never killed anyone.

For our king! For our people!

For our nation of France!

Our god calls us to orléans!

-No one knew how or where joan acquired her skills --

On horseback, as a warrior,

As a military planner.

They just didn't know.

They only knew that she had them.

And so... They followed her into battle.

It's impossible for us today to imagine the reality

Of medieval warfare. It was blind fury.

Man-to-man slaughter, from every direction.

It was pure mayhem.

Starting with orléans,

Joan and her forces did all of their fighting

Between may and July of 1429,

In a roughly ten-mile radius along the loire river.

And each victory

Further decimated and demoralized the enemy.

And the turning point came in June, at the battle of patay,

In which half of the english army was

Either killed or injured.

Joan sent word to the english more than once.

She was offering them the chance to avoid further bloodshed.

-You men of England, you have no right

To this kingdom of France...

The king of heaven orders and notifies you through me,

Joan the maiden,

To leave your fortresses and go back to your country

Or I will produce a clash of arms to be eternally remembered.

This is your third and final warning.

I would have sent this letter more properly

But you detain my herald. Please send him back to me,

And I will send back some of your men we've captured,

Because they're not all dead.

Joan the maiden.

-Joan was a ruthless commander.

And it might be true that she never killed anyone herself,

But she was responsible for the deaths of countless men

In the battlefield.

After battle,

She personally tended to the wounded --

To her own men,

And to the english.

-Pater noster, qui es in caelis,

Sanctificetur nomen tuum.

Adveniat regnum tuum.

Fiat voluntas tua...

-Joan led her army on a relentless March north.

Her every victory on the battlefield

Took her one step closer to her ultimate goal.

And on July 17, 1429, in the cathedral in reims,

Where every french king from the 11th century on was crowned,

The dauphin was made king charles vii.

-Deus iste famulus

Tuus coronatus

Repleatur gratia tua.

Amen.

-Long live the king! -Long live the king!

-My king.

And now, god's will is done.

He willed that I raise the siege of orléans.

He willed that I take you to this city

To receive your holy consecration,

To show that you are true king,

To whom the kingdom of god rightfully belongs.

-Daughter of France...

Thanks to you, god's will be done.

Daughter of France, daughter of god.

-Do you believe you are daughter of god?

-Yes.

-How do you know? -The voices.

-The voices call you daughter of god, daughter of the church,

Daughter great-hearted --

-The voices call me joan the maid, daughter of god.

-How do you know it is not evil spirits speaking to you?

-The voices are from god.

It is not evil spirits that torment me,

It is you who makes me suffer.

And you...And you...

And you.

-The day after charles was crowned,

He started a lengthy peace process

Because he had grown tired of war.

As a reward to joan,

Charles elevated her family to the class of french nobility,

Which was really a way of just pensioning her off.

Because joan wanted to keep fighting,

But she had served her purpose.

To the king she had fought to place on the throne,

She had become an annoyance...

And a liability.

Joan was then injured during an attempted attack on paris,

An attack that the king later called off

Because it interfered with his negotiations with the english.

Then, she ran out of ammunition

And had to retreat from the siege of la charité.

And at a battle in compiègne...

...She was finally cornered

And captured by charles's enemies,

The burgundians.

As joan was moved from place to place,

King charles never once lifted a finger to rescue her,

Or pay her ransom.

The burgundians sold joan to the english for about £10,000

And she was then taken to their stronghold in rouen.

She was kept from going to mass.

And she was humiliated and belittled again and again

At the hands of the english guards

And the burgundian and english judges.

There was another examination to determine her virginity.

Now, the english and the burgundians

Were very eager to portray joan as a whore and a fraud,

Just to shame and completely discredit her.

-She's intact!

-In January of 1431, the trial began --

The first phase, which was the longest,

Was the procès d'office,

Which went on for three months.

That was followed by the "ordinary trial,"

Which lasted two months.

Then there was the relapse trial,

And that was over in a matter of days.

Pierre cauchon, who organized the entire trial,

Was an enemy of the new french king, charles vii,

And he had personally brokered the sale of joan to the english.

The vicar of the inquisition of rouen

Was the only other official judge.

The cardinal of winchester

And the bishop of thérouane were present,

And so were the special "assessors,"

As they were officially known, who appointed by cauchon...

60 of them in all.

There were english and norman prelates,

Or church dignitaries --

Masters of canon law --

There were masters of civil law --

And there were the special masters

From the university of paris.

Now, if it seems excessive, it was.

Because this was not a normal trial.

Joan was provided with no advocate, which was her right.

Now, there were some friendly faces in the room,

But they had to be very careful --

They were like spies.

-Would you like a woman's dress to wear?

-Give me one and I will take it and go!

Otherwise I will not take it. I am content with this attire,

Since it pleases god that I wear it.

-In what form, size, appearance and manner of dress

Does st. Michael come to you?

-As I have told you already,

He comes in the form of a true and honest man.

-Is he naked? -Do you think

God cannot find clothes for him?

-Did he tell you that he was st. Michael?

-I saw the angels with my own eyes

And you will get no more out of me on this point!

-When did you last hear the voice?

-Yesterday and today.

I was sleeping and the voice woke me.

-And what did the voice say?

-I prayed to the voice to counsel me

In how I should answer.

And it said to answer bravely.

It said that god would help me.

-In what way will god help you?

-I don't know. But he will.

-So, will you leave the determination

Of all matters of good and evil to holy mother church?

-I love the church

And wish to sustain her with all my power

For our good christian faith.

-Answer my question --

Will you leave the determination of all matters

Of good and evil to holy mother church?

-As for my own good works,

I must put my faith in the kingdom of heaven.

-Will you abide

By holy mother church in all matters of good and evil?

-I will abide by god who sent me,

By the holy virgin and by all the saints in paradise.

I believe they are all one and the same,

God and the church.

Why do you make it complicated? It is not.

-Why?

Why do you refuse

To wear the women's clothing that was offered to you

That would allow you to hear mass?

-For my clothes, for everything I have done at god's command,

I expect nothing but the salvation of my soul.

And I would rather die

Than revoke what god has told me to do.

-Do you believe that you are in a state of grace?

-If I am not, may god put me there.

And if I am,

May god keep me there.

-Her accusers' only tactic was to increase pressure,

To break her down.

They did this for five relentless months.

-Will you revoke your words and deeds?

-I will abide by god.

-No, that's not enough!

-I do not understand you.

What higher authority could there be than god in heaven?

-Where is your god now?

Has he not promised to save you?

-That does not concern your trial.

-By revelation, you say.

He promised to come help you by revelation!

Where is he? -He is coming.

-When? When is he coming?

-I will be freed by a great victory!

The voices have told me so!

-Maybe the voices have betrayed you.

-No. This is what I was born for.

-Since you refuse to submit to the authority

Of the church militant,

This is your formal admission of guilt.

This is what you must sign.

This is how you will save yourself.

-My guilt?

-You have feigned deceitfully

To have had revelations and apparitions of god!

You have blasphemed god and his saints!

-Never! -You have worn

Misshapen clothes against natural decency!

You have desired and caused cruel effusion of human blood!

-English blood!

-You have despised god and his sacraments!!

-Never have I done this! Never have I done this!!

-Do you know the punishment that awaits

If you refuse to admit to all your crimes?

Do you want to be subjected to torture?

This is your last chance.

Do you want to die?

Do you want to burn at the stake?

The blood in your skull will boil

And the flesh will be seared from your body before you die.

You can save yourself!

Admit your errors and sign

This document of abjuration, now.

-I will sign it.

May god forgive me.

-In the lord's name, amen.

-Amen.

-You are spared from burning.

It is our judgment that you spend the rest of your days

In perpetual imprisonment,

Dressed appropriately in female dress

And weeping for your faults.

Here, in rouen!

-Why are you wearing men's clothes again,

And who made you take them?

-I am wearing them of my own free will.

-Have you heard the voices of st. Margaret

And st. Catherine again? -Yes.

-What did they tell you?

-God sent them to express his great pity for me --

When I signed that paper, I damned myself to save my life.

-You believe that the voices are st. Margaret and st. Catherine?

-Yes -- they are from god.

-You told us that you lied when you said

That they were the voices of st. Margaret and st. Catherine.

-I did not mean to say that.

All that I said and renounced that day,

I did because I was afraid of the flames.

It was against the truth.

I would rather make my penance once and for all, by dying,

Than to endure the torment of prison any longer.

In my life, I have never before done anything against god

Or against the faith.

In recanting, I saved my life, but I damned my soul.

Everything I told you during the trial was the truth,

As best I knew it.

I thought god would keep me safe in this life.

Now I understand.

And his will be done.

May I have a cross, please?

-On this day, the 30th of may,

In the year of our lord fourteen-hundred and thirty-one,

In the city of rouen,

I, pierre cauchon,

Appointed chief adjudicator

In the inquisition of the woman before you,

The maid joan,

Do hereby claim she has fallen again

Into the grave errors she had abjured.

That she has blasphemed and despised god.

That she has gone against nature in her appearance.

That she has been the cause of unspeakable bloodshed.

And that she shall be tied to the stake,

And burned unto death.

In the name of the lord our god, his son jesus,

And all his saints,

I pronounce this woman -- the maid joan -- a heretic,

And officially condemn her to die this day.

-Thank you.

-It was said that when joan gave up the ghost,

A white dove was seen soaring into the sky.

The story was told that after the fire went out,

The body was reduced to ashes.

Everything ashes,

Except the heart. Which was completely intact

And filled with blood.

So, the executioner covered it with oil, and charcoal,

And sulphur, and it still wouldn't burn.

The executioner later accosted two monks

And he begged for forgiveness.

He said, "I've burned a holy woman."

The 100 years war

More or less came to an end in 1453,

When the french finally drove out the english invaders.

Three years later, in the archepiscopal palace of rouen --

After petitions and rulings from rome,

And the testimony of all those left who knew joan,

And who witnessed the travesty of her trial --

Every judgment against joan was vacated.

It was nullified.

Her fame spread throughout France, her legend grew.

But it took about 500 years before she was beatified

And then canonized by the very church

Whose officers had burned her at the stake.

Warrior or mystic?

Can anyone even answer that question?

At the heart of absolutely everything...Is her faith.

Her absolute, unshakable faith.

What are the procedures for, uh, beatification, canonization?

How has that changed over the years?

Going back, of course,

To the first century, too, which we understand,

I think the procedure was -- there was no procedure.

-Yeah. Early on, it was sort of popular acclimation.

And the idea was, certainly for the martyrs,

They were considered saints.

But then as time wore on,

We went to the place where we are now.

Which is basically, it has to start locally.

Uh, so there has to be a local devotion.

The person is called, uh, a servant of god.

And then when that is approved by the vatican,

They're called venerable.

And then when they get their first miracle,

They're called blessed.

So that's called beatification.

And then when they have two miracles, they're canonized.

So it's much more formal.

And the idea is that the church wants to guard

Against the possibility that someone would,

You know, had something in their background,

Uh, that would be untoward...

And so a longer process means more investigation.

So it's a long, long process.

-But isn't, isn't there something untoward

In everybody's background?

-I was gonna say. -Well, I mean, really untoward.

the thing about joan,

That she was looked like a crazy woman.

-Well, joan of arc is not like any of the other saints.

I always think of all the saints, she's the one

I think most people would have trouble with today.

I mean, if francis came up, oh -- I love the poor.

Uh, I'm working with the poor. Even maximillian kolbe,

Who, you know -- I'm gonna sacrifice my life.

But this idea that I'm hearing voices,

And I'm gonna lead the army of France to defeat England,

That -- that's a little off putting for people.

-It is, it is. So how do we, in a sense,

Try to reconcile the warrior joan, with her faith?

How do we reconcile this, um... Carnage with faith?

-I always like to think of her as more of a liberator.

That's how I look at her. Not, not as a warrior,

But as someone who is delivering her people from, uh,

Under the heel of english oppressors.

-A teenage girl, not even from paris,

From the provinces, unlettered...

Hears voices that tell her to take a role

In the political affairs of France and England

At a major time of upheaval

And winds up getting people to listen to her

And winds up leading an army and winds up having the claims

That she makes evaluated in ecclesiastical courts.

It's so strange that you couldn't make it up.

-It's the same thing as jesus. I mean, I always wonder

What was his first talk like, you know,

After he -- right there in nazareth, what was his first?

-Well, they didn't like it. They didn't like it very much.

-They hated it. They said, he's a nut.

-You know, I think joan is someone

Who also trusts her experiences. -Yes, yes.

-She trusts what she sees, and she is faithful to that.

And I think that is very much along the lines

Of the rest of the lives of the saints.

You know, even though they are, uh, you know, sort of set upon

And, ignored and sometimes opposed, they trust it.

-I always like to think of her in high school for some reason.

-I like to think of her -- -she's the patron saint of --

-Of high school students. -Of headstrong teenagers.

-Well, of oddball people in middle school

Who are not looked on very kindly maybe

By their, by their fellows.

And who nonetheless have some love and some devotion

So deep and so pure in her.

She's probably illiterate. I mean, she had no power.

Uh, joan the maid, they called her.

I mean, she was feeding pigs. I mean, what was she doing?

-And further, um, her dress.

The male dressing...

Which I'm not an anthropologist or historian

Of the ordinary life of people in the middle ages,

But I don't believe a woman dressing as a man

Is gonna go over well in terms --

-They frowned on it. -They frowned on it.

-They still do sometimes. -They do?

-Yeah, I hear that... I don't know why.

-Also, the prizing of virginity.

-When she was canonized, she was canonized as a virgin,

Not as a martyr. -This is the crazy thing.

It took about 500 years for her to be canonized.

I mean, what's that about?

-Also the interest in the area for our church,

Sorry, fellas, have to say it,

Between a woman's waist and her knees.

The fascination. I mean, their fascination

With having to be sure she was quote unquote intact.

-Well, the virginity, of course, is seen as a form of purity

Back then. But also, there's been a lot of scholarship

Recently that's talked about, women,

Uh, retaining their virginity

As, kind of an emblem of their power, right?

That they are, they are, they are keeping it to themselves.

And it's not for them to give away.

That's a kind of revisionist idea

Of what it means to be a virgin martyr.

On the one hand, you don't want to elevate virginity, per se.

On the other hand, in the patriarchal time,

You know, when a woman was the possession

Of either, uh, her father or her husband.

-That's right. -It could be a radical act.

Right. Of kind of self-determination,

Self definition. -But the other way

She inspires me is in her moments...

Because that's what makes me see her humanity

And makes me think I have a shot in my little sinful self.

That when she refuses, you know, she signs the paper,

They cudgel her into signing this thing -- that she was,

You know, would, you know, was this was all heretical

And blah, blah, blah -- and then she goes back

And she's so consoled by god that god isn't angry,

And or the voices, the saints, catherine, michael, margaret,

Or not punishing to her,

But then she comes back and says, you know,

I have to recant this. I lied to you,

Uh, because I was afraid of being tortured.

-It's a very human moment.

-But isn't that what we all do too?

-Sure. -Is that we get up

In the morning, we say our prayers, whatever,

And think today will be the day that I'm not judgmental,

Cruel, you know, unkind, x, y, z.

And, but you have a chance throughout the day

If you listen to that voice.

I mean, don't we all have it, whether you're catholic or not.

-Yeah. The voice of your conscience.

And you know, the jesuits have a saying

That we're all loved sinners.

-Yes. -Right? And so were the saints.

This, I mean, they were all, they weren't divine.

Right? Uh, they did difficult things.

They were human beings who sinned from time to time.

So you know, the old saying,

No, no saint without a past, no sinner, without a future.

-No. I love that. Can I get a tattoo?

No saint without a past --

You're just giving me so much hope, jim.