The canonization of Joan of Arc in 1920, hailed as a spiritual triumph by the Catholic Church, was in reality a meticulously orchestrated political operation. This endeavor, driven by an unlikely alliance between the French Catholic clergy, the monarchist far-right, and the republican regime, crafted an artificial myth that was, awkwardly enough, quickly abandoned. Its purpose? To unify the French masses around an exacerbated nationalism, directed against Germany in the tense context of the pre- and post-World War I era.
A Fractured France and a « Threatening » Germany
The canonization of Joan of Arc occurred at a pivotal moment in French history. In 1920, France emerged victorious but exhausted from World War I. Human losses (1.4 million dead) and material destruction left a divided society, marked by social, political, and religious tensions. The Third Republic, seeking national cohesion, also had to contend with a Germany humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) but still perceived as a threat. In this climate, Joan of Arc became a unifying symbol capable of bridging divides between the Catholic right and the republican left.
Historian Jean Garrigues, in The World of the Belle Époque (2018), emphasizes that the 1920 canonization sealed a strategic reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Republic. After decades of conflict, marked by the Paris Commune (1871), the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906), and the 1905 law separating Church and State, both forces found common ground in Joan. For the Church, she was a martyr saint; for the Republic, a secular national heroine. This convergence was not spontaneous: it served a political project to mobilize the French masses around a unifying national narrative for warlike mobilization.
The Actors: An Opportunistic Alliance
Three main forces orchestrated this canonization: the Catholic clergy, the monarchist far-right, and the republican regime. Each pursued its own interests but converged on a common goal: strengthening French identity against Germany.
1. The Catholic Clergy: Reclaiming Joan to Counter Secularism
From the mid-19th century, the French Catholic Church saw Joan of Arc as a weapon against the growing secularization of society. In 1869, Mgr Félix Dupanloup, Bishop of Orléans and loyalist to Napoleon III’s authoritarian regime, officially launched the canonization process. This choice was deliberate: Joan, burned at the stake in 1431 after a Church-led trial, embodied a martyr figure likely to rally the faithful.
Contrary to a legend born of French chauvinism, Joan of Arc was judged in a regular trial. According to historian Colette Beaune (Joan of Arc: Truths and Legends, 2004), the trial meticulously followed the inquisitorial procedures defined by medieval canon law. The Inquisition, established to combat heresy, relied on rigorous interrogations, the search for contradictions, and the application of sanctions, including death for relapsed heretics (those who reverted to error after abjuring).
Joan faced several charges:
- Unverified visions: She claimed to receive messages from God through saints, but the Church, the sole legitimate authority to authenticate such revelations, deemed them suspect.
- Wearing male clothing: Seen as a violation of biblical norms (Deuteronomy 22:5), this choice was perceived as a challenge to social and religious order.
- Disobedience: Joan refused to fully submit to Church authority, asserting that her visions superseded clerical injunctions.
These charges, detailed by Gerd Krumeich in Joan of Arc in Truth (2012), were grounded in the legal framework of the time. The tribunal, composed of theologians and jurists, adhered to protocols established by papal decretals. After weeks of interrogations, Joan signed an abjuration on May 24, 1431, promising to renounce her visions and male clothing. Days later, she recanted, resuming male attire. This relapse sealed her fate: on May 30, 1431, she was burned alive in Rouen’s Vieux-Marché square.
2. The Monarchist Far-Right: A Symbol Against the Republic
Historian Colette Beaune notes that the Church sought to reclaim a figure already popularized by republican historians like Jules Michelet. By sanctifying her, it aimed to counter secular narratives portraying Joan as a people’s heroine rather than a divine envoy.
The monarchist far-right, embodied by groups like Charles Maurras’s Action Française, played a key role in exalting Joan. For these nostalgics of the Ancien Régime, she represented an eternal, Catholic, and royalist France, opposed to the Republic they despised. From the 1890s, Action Française organized pilgrimages to Domrémy, Joan’s birthplace, and demonstrations in Orléans. Gerd Krumeich shows that monarchists used Joan to promote a nationalism where the German replaced the Englishman as the hereditary enemy, a rhetoric amplified after the 1870 war and post-1918.
3. The Republican Regime: A Heroine to Unify the Nation
Paradoxically, the anticlerical Republic also appropriated Joan. Since Jules Michelet made her a people’s figure in his History of France (1841), Joan was integrated into the republican pantheon. After the 1918 victory, the government saw her as a symbol to unite French citizens, from socialists to conservatives. In 1920, the national Joan of Arc holiday (second Sunday of May) was established, cementing the alliance with the Church. Historian Catherine Brice, in History of Italy (1999), notes that such mythification was common in post-war nations, where historical figures were mobilized to bolster national unity.
An Artificial Myth: Constructing a National Joan
The Joan of Arc canonized in 1920 is not the historical figure of the 15th century but a carefully crafted myth. Historically, Joan was a Lorraine peasant driven by religious visions, who played a role in lifting the siege of Orléans (1429) and Charles VII’s coronation. However, Colette Beaune highlights that her strategic role was exaggerated by contemporary chroniclers, and her trial reveals a more complex figure, far from the univocal icon of the 19th and 20th centuries. She was largely forgotten before being revived in the late 19th century.
The myth of Joan rests on several distortions
From anti-English to anti-German heroine
Originally, Joan fought the English in the Hundred Years’ War. By the 19th century, hostility toward England waned, and Germany became the primary enemy, especially after the 1871 loss of Alsace-Lorraine. Nationalist narratives recast Joan as an anti-German figure, a theme amplified post-1918.
A republican saint
Despite her loyalty to the monarchy, Joan was portrayed as a people’s heroine, embodying the French nation. This rewriting erased her medieval context to project her into a modern, national France that emerged only with the Revolution, 350 years later.
A consensual symbol
By smoothing over her ambiguities (religious fanaticism, military failures post-1429), the myth made Joan a unifying figure for Catholics and secularists alike.
An Operation Against Germany
The canonization of Joan of Arc was part of a climate of revenge against Germany. After the Treaty of Versailles, France sought to maintain its military and moral supremacy. Joan, depicted as a divine warrior who saved France, became a tool of government propaganda to galvanize spirits. Posters, statues, and celebrations nationwide exalted her image, and an artificial cult was imposed, quickly fading in a changing society. Historian Michel Lagrée, in Religion and Modernity in Brittany (1990), notes that Brittany, despite its deep Catholicism, was forcibly integrated into this French narrative, at the expense of its own identity. From 1429 to 1431, when Joan was active, Brittany, an independent duchy, maintained diplomatic neutrality and did not participate in the war between England and France, making the promotion of this myth in Breton churches all the more absurd.
This anti-German nationalism had consequences. By exalting a belligerent France, Joan’s myth marginalized peoples under French occupation, including Bretons, whose language and traditions were suppressed under the Third Republic.
Critical Historians: Deconstructing the Myth
Several historians have exposed the manipulations surrounding Joan of Arc’s canonization.
Colette Beaune (Joan of Arc: Truths and Legends, 2004) shows how Joan was transformed into a national myth in the 19th century, erasing her historical complexities and recasting her as anti-German.
Gerd Krumeich (Joan of Arc in Truth, 2012) analyzes the far-right’s appropriation of Joan and her use in anti-German nationalism.
Jean Garrigues (The World of the Belle Époque, 2018) contextualizes the canonization as a strategic alliance between Church and Republic to overcome France’s internal divisions.
Michel Lagrée (Religion and Modernity in Brittany, 1990) explores how Brittany, despite its Catholic fervor, was subjected to a centralized French Catholicism embodied by figures like Joan.
A Lesson for Brittany
For Breton nationalists, Joan of Arc’s canonization exemplifies how the French state manipulates history for its own ends. In Brittany, where Breton cultural identity has been systematically marginalized, this myth imposed a homogenized French vision, disregarding the Breton national history.
Ironically, Joan of Arc’s figure is now largely forgotten by the French state that created her myth from scratch. Few celebrations honor her in France, except in Orléans for tourism. A product of French political engineering during the imperialist era, Joan’s myth did not survive the 20th century. This makes the outdated presence of her statues or place names in Brittany, a nation victimized by the French imperialism her myth fueled, all the more odious.
Olier Kerdrel
Sources:
Beaune, Colette. Joan of Arc: Truths and Legends. Paris: Perrin, 2004.
Krumeich, Gerd. Joan of Arc in Truth. Paris: Tallandier, 2012.
Garrigues, Jean. The World of the Belle Époque. Paris: Perrin, 2018.
Lagrée, Michel. Religion and Modernity in Brittany. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1990.
Recevez notre newsletter par e-mail !
