Mass for the Feast of St Joan of Arc

(Above) Statue of Joan of Arc attending the consecration of the French King – which she had made possible – in Reims cathedral.

Joan of Arc was once a ubiquitous presence in Catholic – and even non-Catholic – life: innumerable books, sculptures and paintings, movies with Ingrid Bergman and Jean Seberg and before those Dreyer’s silent masterpiece. Why she even had her own Classics comic book! While on the secular side, more films have appeared in relatively recent years, in the Church itself the Maid of Orleans virtually disappeared from the consciousness of the faithful after the Council. Is it because her deeds of war are now out of sync with the novel quasi-pacifist line adopted in various degrees by Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis?

From the collect for this feast :

Deus, qui beatam Ioannam virginem ad fidem ac patriam tuendam mirabiliter suscitasti…

(O God who wonderfully raised up the blessed virgin Joan to preserve the faith and fatherland…

(The secret prayer is even more specifically laudatory of Joan’s “undertaking the perils of war to expel the enemies“)

On Wednesday evening a group of the faithful set about to repair this neglect and rekindle devotion to this remarkable saint. The St Hugh of Cluny Society sponsored this mass – and a couple of us (including the celebrant) had hurried down to Brooklyn from far off Norwalk(and Columbus Circle).

The mass took place in the grand church of St. Agnes in South Brooklyn (Carroll Gardens). Built and decorated between 1904 and around 1913 this church is of cathedral dimensions. It is a fitting shrine to St Agnes; such a great contrast to the pathetic sanctuary near Grand Central in Manhattan! Signs of neglect, however, are found here, there and everywhere – yet thankfully some repairs seem to be in process.

The windows – many having imposing dimensions – were made in Munich by the firm of F.X. Zettler. In the nave is an unusual cycle of the legend of St Agnes.

A mass in such a vast old church produces remarkable effects: the darkness of the evening hour, the chant alternating with silence, the pervasive odor of the incense, the solemn ceremonial – all these lead one’s thoughts back to the Gothic cathedrals of Northern France (like Reims) where Joan herself had prayed. Of course, Reims and her sisters stand nearly empty nowadays….