Transcript
Host (0:02)
You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.
Dr. Ben Akers (0:18)
Hello. Welcome to a special edition of Catholic Saints. My name is Dr. Ben Akers. I'm the Chief Content Officer here at the Augustine Institute, and my guest today is Paul McCusker, resident storyteller. And we're celebrating the release of a new CD set that we have of the most recent audio drama that we've done, the Victory of Joan of Arc. So Catholic Saints is where we have a conversation with a professor now, with our resident scholars, or the one who tells the stories of the saints who. Heroes and heroines of the Catholic faith that celebrate the virtues of faith, hope, charity, and fortitude in a particular way. I think with Joan of Arc, it's a special edition because we usually talk about the story of the saints, and I want to talk about her life and how it comes out in the telling of the story. But I also want to unbox this special CD sets and find out these extra resources that we have here. So if you're following along, Catholic Saints is a podcast that the Augusta Institute releases weekly. Again, special edition. Victory of Joan of Arc. So what are some. Can we give a broad stroke of the life of Joan of Arc? She's probably one of the most mysterious saints that we have in our calendar. We have so many great saints, though.
Paul McCusker (1:30)
Well, we do, but she's unusual, especially in the context of where she appeared historically. But the whole thing, I mean, so many of the saints I find a bit crazy anyway, you know, Francis. And some of them just don't fit neatly. They do what they do almost in defiance of their times. So with Joan here, you have a.
Dr. Ben Akers (1:51)
Girl, peasant girl, raised in 15th century.
Paul McCusker (1:55)
Yeah. So we're in the 1400s, early 1400s. She is part of a. Part of France because France was completely polarized. So just to give context of what she grew up with. So you have. The English were constantly invading France and trying to take over. They laid claim to it.
Dr. Ben Akers (2:16)
This is part of the Hundred Years War, if I remember correctly. Okay, so it's a long war.
Paul McCusker (2:20)
Yeah, and it's long. And Henry V, people know him from Shakespeare, comes in the Battle of Agincourt, which was a huge turning point, by the way, to French sensibilities. That loss so confounded them that they actually thought maybe it was a punishment from God. So spiritually, you have this dynamic going on, not only with the English very much present in their country, but then you had sort of on the northern end, the Duke of Burgundy. And he was pro whatever would work for him. So he would be pro English if it served him side with the French, his own people, if it would serve them whatever would serve him best. And then she came from the part of the country that was more. Less pro French by itself and not overrun necessarily by the English. But she grew up with a lot of sort of renegade troops coming and going. So her town, Domremy, was in the middle of this area. So she was well acquainted to the battles and to the conflicts of the country. But when she was 12, she began to. And it sounds crazy, but she began to hear, essentially, voices. But she knew immediately, her sense was that there was something divine here. And she began to discern. I think she spoke with her priest about, what is this? What are they telling me to do? And essentially the calling came down to, you are going to lead the French to victory and have the dauphin, who was the prince, though, disavowed. Prince Charles. You are going to have him crowned in the cathedral where he should be crowned. And so this was her call. She's 18 years old.