Joanna Francisca from Chantal.

Image after a contemporary portrait

Joan of Arc was the daughter of the President of Parliament Fremont of Burgundy and at the age of 20 she married the young, wealthy and cheerful Baron Christophe de Rabutin, Baron of Chantal, to whom she gave birth to six children in a happy marriage, four of whom survived. In 1601 her husband died in a hunting accident. This stroke of fate made the pious woman even more inward; prayer and penance determined her life, and her first mystical experiences and visions appeared. Among other things, her future spiritual guide was revealed to her.

In 1604, Joan of Francesco met Francis de Sales for the first time and recognized in him the man revealed in the vision; a close friendship developed and a correspondence that has continued to this day. She decided to live a celibate life in the future. For a while she spent time with the Carmelites in their monastery in Dijon and became clear about her calling. She put her children in good hands; her eldest daughter had married Francis de Sales’ brother and was now able to live her destiny.

Statue in the cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand 

Francis de Sales and Joan of Chantal with the Visitants, altarpiece in the side chapel of the Visitants Church in Fribourg in Switzerland

In 1610, Joan of Arc co-founded the Order of the Visitation of Mary, also known as the Salesian Sisters or Visitants, with Francis de Sales. The order aimed to live a devout life without adhering to the strict formalities of other orders. The sisters focused on making personal commitments to follow Jesus Christ and practicing inner asceticism, rather than observing external rituals. This emphasis on individual piety, inspired by Francis de Sales, was supported by Joan of Arc. The first monastery was established in Lyon in 1615 and later relocated, followed by the foundation of the monastery in Moulins the next year.

Statue and reliquary in the church of the monastery in Moulins

Joanna-Francisca spent her final years expanding the order, which grew to 87 houses by the time of her death. She had founded one of these, the monastery at the Church of the Visitation in Turin, as early as 1638 with the Duchess’s support. Exhausted and ill with pneumonia and pleurisy, Joanna-Francisca died on a visit to her Moulins monastery.

An altarpiece in Turin’s Church della Visitation shows Francis de Sales presenting the order’s rule to Saint Joan of Arc.

Since 1911, Joan of Frances’s coffin has stood next to that of Francis de Sales in the Basilica de la Visitation in Annecy.

At the request of the French Bishops’ Conference, Joan of Arc’s Memorial Day was moved to August 12 in 2001. Until then, her Memorial Day was December 12, and before 1970 it was August 21.

 Canonization: On August 21, 1751, Johanna-Franziska was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV and canonized on July 16, 1767 by Pope Clement XIII.