Spirits in the Sky - Hank Williams - the Father of Contemporary country music

Legendary Country Music Performer Hank Williams was born September 17, 1923 in Alabama.  By the early age of 25, he was a country music superstar and by the early age of 29, he was dead.  Williams left behind a legacy of country classics in his brief but lasting repertoire.

Hank Williams, known as the Father of contemporary country music, is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of country legends.  During his lifetime, he was known as increasingly unreliable, a drunk, a drug addict, and reckless womanizer.

What was unknown to almost everyone at the time was Williams suffered from a congenital spinal disorder since birth and every year his condition worsened.  He was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain—a factor in his later abuse of alcohol and drugs.

As a result, Williams first used excessive alcohol in his early teens to disguise the intense pain he suffered all the time.  It was not an easy life growing up in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930's.

I’m So Lonesome I could Cry

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When he was eight years old, he was given a guitar by his mother. His musical education was provided by a local blues street singer, Rufus Payne, a Black musician who was called Tee Tot. From Tee Tot, Williams learned how to play the guitar and sing the blues.  Hank was a gifted musician and songwriter who had his own band and radio show by the time he was in his late teens.

Hank’s monumental legacy becomes even more notable when realizing he issued only thirty singles in his lifetime—and five more posthumously. Eleven went to #1. All were recorded in less than six years, between December 1946 and September 1952. Yet that small body of work changed the course of American music, forever altering the sound of country music and motivating songwriters of all styles to dare to be as emotionally bare and as unabashedly real as Hank had been.

The following are more detailed accounts of the life and times of Hank Williams and his remarkable journey from the pinnacle of success to the depths of defeat.  We dedicate this story to the true legacy of the most famous country singer of all time who set the standard for being the best at a level seldom achieved in any musical genre.

CMT Artists Biography

Hank Williams - Father of Contemporary Country Music

Hank Williams is the father of contemporary country music. He was a superstar by the age of 25; he was dead at the age of 29. In those four short years, he established the rules for all the country performers who followed him and, in the process, much of popular music. Hank wrote a body of songs that became popular classics, and his direct, emotional lyrics and vocals became the standard for most popular performers. He lived a life as troubled and reckless as that depicted in his songs.

Hiram King Williams was born in Mount Olive, AL, on September 17, 1923. When he was eight years old, he was given a guitar by his mother. His musical education was provided by a local blues street singer, Rufus Payne, who was called Tee Tot. From Tee Tot, Williams learned how to play the guitar and sing the blues, which would come to provide a strong undercurrent in his songwriting. Williams began performing around the Georgiana and Greenville areas of Alabama in his early teens. His mother moved the family to Montgomery, AL, in 1937, where she opened a boarding house. In Montgomery, he formed a band called the Drifting Cowboys and landed a regular spot on a local radio station, WSFA, in 1941. During his shows, Williams would sing songs from his idol, Roy Acuff, as well as several other country hits of the day. WSFA dubbed him "the Singing Kid" and Williams stayed with the station for the rest of the decade.

I Saw the Light

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Williams met Audrey Mae Sheppard, a farm girl from Banks, AL, in 1943 while he was playing a medicine show. The following year, the couple married and moved into Lilly's boarding house. Audrey became Williams' manager just before the marriage. By 1946, he was a local celebrity, but he was unable to make much headway nationally. That year, Hank and Audrey visited Nashville with the intent of meeting songwriter/music publisher Fred Rose, one of the heads of Acuff-Rose Publishing. Rose liked Williams' songs and asked him to record two sessions for Sterling Records, which resulted in two singles. Both of the singles -- "Never Again" in December 1946 and "Honky Tonkin'" in February 1947 -- were successful and Williams signed a contract with MGM Records early in 1947. Rose became the singer's manager and record producer.

"Move It on Over," released later in 1947, became Hank's first single for MGM. It was an immediate hit, climbing into the country Top Five. By the summer of 1948, he had joined The Louisiana Hayride, appearing both on its tours and radio programs. "Honky Tonkin'" was released in 1948, followed by "I'm a Long Gone Daddy." While neither song was as successful as "Move It on Over," they were popular, with the latter peaking in the Top Ten. Early in 1949, he recorded "Lovesick Blues," a Tin Pan Alley song initially recorded by Emmett Miller and made popular by Rex Griffin. The single became a huge hit upon its release in the spring of 1949, staying at number one for 16 weeks and crossing over into the pop Top 25. Williams sang the song at the Grand Ole Opry, where he performed an unprecedented six encores. He had become a star.

Hank and Audrey Williams had their first child, Randall Hank, in the spring of 1949. Also in the spring, Hank assembled the most famous edition of the Drifting Cowboys, featuring guitarist Bob McNett, bassist Hillous Butrum, fiddler Jerry Rivers, and steel guitarist Don Helms. Soon, he and the band were earning $1,000 per concert while selling out shows across the country. Williams had no fewer than seven hits in 1949 after the success of "Lovesick Blues," including the Top Five smashes "Wedding Bells," "Mind Your Own Business," "You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave)," and "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It." A string of additional singles followed in 1950, including the number one hits "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," "Why Don't You Love Me," and "Moanin' the Blues," as well as the Top Ten hits "I Just Don't Like This Kind of Livin'," "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy," "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me," "Why Should We Try," and "Nobody's Lonesome for Me." That same year, Williams began recording a series of spiritual records under the name Luke the Drifter.

Williams continued to rack up hits in 1951, beginning with the Top Ten hit "Dear John" and its number one flip side, "Cold, Cold Heart." That same year, pop vocalist Tony Bennett recorded his own version of "Cold, Cold Heart" to popular acclaim, leading to a stream of covers from such mainstream artists as Jo Stafford, Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Teresa Brewer, and several others. Williams had also begun to experience the fruits of crossover success, appearing on the Perry Como television show and joining a package tour that also featured Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Minny Pearl. In addition to "Dear John" and "Cold, Cold Heart," Williams had several other hits in 1951, including the number one song "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "Howlin' at the Moon," "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)," "Crazy Heart," "Lonesome Whistle," and "Baby, We're Really in Love," which all charted in the Top Ten.

Though his professional career was soaring, Hank's personal life was beginning to spin out of control. He had suffered a mild drinking problem before becoming a star, but it had been more or less controlled during his first few years of fame. However, as he began to earn large amounts of money and spend long times away from home, he began to drink frequently. Furthermore, Hank's marriage to Audrey was deteriorating. Not only were they fighting, resulting in occasional separations, but Audrey was trying to create her own recording career without any success. In the fall of 1951, Hank was on a hunting trip on his Tennessee farm when he tripped and fell, re-activating a dormant back injury. Williams began taking morphine and other painkillers for his back and quickly became addicted.

In January of 1952, Hank and Audrey separated for a final time and he headed back to Montgomery to live with his mother. The move had little effect on his music career, however, with "Honky Tonk Blues" peaking at number two during the spring. In fact, he released five additional singles in 1952 -- "Half as Much," "Jambalaya," "Settin' the Woods on Fire," "You Win Again," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" -- all of which charted in the Top Ten. In spite of such success, Hank turned completely reckless in 1952, spending nearly all of his waking hours drunk and taking drugs. He also frequently destroyed property and played with guns.

Williams left his mother in early spring, moving in with Ray Price in Nashville. In May, Audrey and Hank were officially divorced. She was awarded the house and their child, as well as half of his future royalties. Williams continued to play a large number of concerts, but he was always drunk during the show, and he sometimes missed the gig altogether. In August, the Grand Ole Opry fired Williams for that very reason, explaining that he could return once he was sober. Instead of heeding the Opry's warning, the singer just sank deeper into his self-destructive behavior. Soon, his friends were leaving him, as the Drifting Cowboys began working with Price and Fred Rose no longer supported him. Williams was still playing The Louisiana Hayride, but he was performing with local pickup bands and began earning reduced wages.

That fall, he met Billie Jean Jones Eshlimar, the 19-year-old daughter of a Louisiana policeman. By October, they were married. Hank also signed an agreement to support the baby -- who had yet to be delivered -- of one of his other girlfriends, Bobbie Jett, in October. By the end of the year, Williams was having heart problems and Toby Marshall, a con man doctor, was giving him various prescription drugs to help soothe the pain.

Hank was scheduled to play a concert in Canton, OH, on January 1, 1953. He was scheduled to fly out of Knoxville, TN, on New Year's Eve, but the weather was so bad that he had to hire a chauffeur to drive him to Ohio in his new Cadillac. Before they left for Ohio, Williams was injected with two shots of vitamin B-12 and morphine by a doctor. Williams got into the backseat of the Cadillac (allegedly with a bottle of whiskey), and the teenage chauffeur headed out for Canton. When the driver was stopped for speeding, the policeman noticed that Hank looked like a dead man. Williams was taken to a West Virginia hospital and he was officially declared dead at 7:00 a.m. on January 1, 1953. He had died in the back of the Cadillac, on his way to a concert. Ironically, the last single released in his lifetime was "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."

Hank was buried in Montgomery, AL, three days later. His funeral drew a record crowd, larger than any crowd since Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy in 1861. Dozens of country music stars attended, as did Audrey Williams, Billie Jean Jones, and Bobbie Jett, who happened to give birth to a daughter three days later. "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" reached number one immediately after his death, and it was followed by a number of hit records throughout 1953, including the number ones "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Kaw-Liga," and "Take These Chains From My Heart."

After his death, MGM wanted to keep issuing Williams records, so they took some of his original demos and overdubbed bands onto the original recording. The first of these, "Weary Blues from Waitin'," was a hit, but the others weren't quite as successful. In 1961, Hank was one of the first inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Throughout the '60s, Williams' records were released in overdubbed versions featuring heavy strings, as well as reprocessed stereo. For years, these bastardized versions were the only records in print, and only in the '80s, when his music was released on compact disc, was his catalog restored to its original form. Even during those years when only overdubbed versions of his hits existed, Williams' impact never diminished. His songs have become classics, his recordings have stood the test of time, and his life story is legendary. It's easy to see why Hank Williams is considered by many as the defining figure of country music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi.

Hank Williams

Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2004

COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Hank Williams

In his tragically short career, Hank Williams (1923-1953) became one of the most famous country and western performers in the United States. He wrote and recorded songs that are still considered to be country music standards.

Hiram King "Hank" Williams was born on September 17, 1923, near Mt. Olive, Alabama, the third child born to Elonzo Huble and Lillian (Skipper) Williams. His father abandoned the family when Williams was a young child, spending many years at veterans' hospitals for various ailments. It therefore became the responsibility of his strong-willed mother to raise Williams and the other children. Williams attended SidneyLanier High School in Montgomery, but left school at the age of 16.

Raised as a Fundamentalist Baptist, Williams was steeped from his earliest childhood in the church's distinctive sermons and music. He remained fond of the fire and brimstone images, especially from the songs. His mother played the organ at Mt. Olive West Baptist Church. "My earliest memory," Williams told Rolling Stone writer Ralph J. Gleason, (as quoted by Williams' biographer Colin Escott), "is sittin' on that organ stool by her and hollerin'. I must have been five, six-years-old, and louder'n anybody else." Williams also found inspiration in black music. He learned to play the guitar in Greenville, Alabama, from a street performer named Rufe Payne, known as Tee-Tot. "I was shinin' shoes and sellin' newspapers and following [him] around to get him to teach me to play the git-tar," Williams told Gleason. "I'd give him 15 cents, or whatever I could get ahold of for a lesson." Yet another musical inspiration for the lanky teenager were the ever-present sounds of traditional country music performers like the Carter family and Monroe brothers.

Early Career

Trying to break into the music business, Williams entered talent contests all over the country. He won $15 at the Empire Theater in Montgomery by performing what is probably the first song he wrote, "WPA Blues," a blues critique of President Franklin Roosevelt's Depression-era work program. Too sickly and skinny for the hard labor jobs of his peers, Williams honed his guitar and singing skills. In 1942, he managed to get his own weekly 15-minute show on Montgomery radio station WSFA. (In those days, radio programming was composed almost entirely of live acts.) Williams spent several years (the precise number varied wildly depending on who told it) at WSFA, eventually becoming a disk jockey. In Montgomery, Williams made his first recording, at Griffin's Radio Shop. Around this time, he organized his backup band, the Drifting Cowboys, who would play with him through most of his career.

In 1943, Williams met Audrey Mae Sheppard. At the age of 20, she was separated from her husband and a single mother. In a ceremony just ten days after her divorce became final, she and Williams were married before a justice of the peace at his gas station near Andalusia, Alabama in December 1944. With the help of his new bride, who took over his mother's motivating role, Williams traveled to Nashville. He was determined to build a successful career in the country music business.

In 1946, Williams earned a writer's contract after auditioning for Acuff-Rose publishing. He recorded his first session in December 1946, and the single "Calling You" was released in January 1947. The success of that record led to a one-year recording contract with MGM records in March 1947. His first MGM single, "Move It On Over," sold 108,000 copies in less than a year. His growing popularity enabled Williams to secure a position on a bigger radio show, the Louisiana Hayride, which was broadcast out of Shreveport,Louisiana. It was the biggest listening audience he had ever reached.

Big Break

Williams recorded "Lovesick Blues," from a 1922 musical called Oooh Ernest! "Lovesick Blues, a song that was neither country nor blues in origin, and not even from Hank's pen, gave him his breakthrough," Escott later wrote. "From the opening line, with its keening yodel adding a dramatic flourish to the word "blues," it was obvious that this was a performance—rather than a song—that was impossible to ignore. Hank's performance almost instilled the lyrics with meaning."

The song, released February 11, 1949, quickly became Williams' trademark tune. It spent a year on the charts, including 16 weeks at the top. Suddenly, Williams found himself on a roll. He quickly recorded two more songs that also hit the charts, "Wedding Bells," and "Mind Your Own Business," a tune allegedly aimed at his wife. Even though Williams was gaining a reputation for being unreliable and having a problem with alcohol, the Grand Ole Opry reluctantly hired the rising young star as a regular cast member in the summer of 1949.

As Williams grew more famous, his wife began to push for her own spot in the limelight. Since the start of their relationship, Williams had sometimes allowed her to play with the Drifting Cowboys. They recorded several duets together. One demo revealed that "Audrey's voice sounded like fingernails scraping down a blackboard. She was shrill and tuneless, and her problems were compounded by a weak sense of time," Escott wrote. "Her duets with Hank were like an extension of their married life—she fought him for dominance on every note."

Rising Star

1949 was a very successful year for Williams. Not only was he hired by the Grand Ole Opry, but he became the proud parent of a son, Randall Hank Jr., who would later become a country music star in his own right. In 1950, Williams had a series of successful songs including "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It," "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," and "Why Don't You Love Me." He also released a series of religious duets with his wife. Using his own increasing stardom as leverage, Williams had helped his wife get a recording contract with Decca. They were far less successful. He recorded his unpopular religious sermons under the name "Luke the Drifter," so that jukebox operators who had standing orders for any Hank Williams release wouldn't buy them.

Williams' success continued through 1951, and culminated with the release of "Cold, Cold Heart." The tune spent almost a year at the top of the country music charts. Music executives convinced pop crooner Tony Bennett to record a version of the song, which became a hit for him as well. This was especially significant because it was the first time a country song recorded by a pop artist had achieved such stunning commercial success. Subsequently, Williams became noticed on a national level, one of the first country singers to do so. In addition to their musical activities, Williams and his wife found the time to launch a Nashville clothing store, Hank and Audrey's Corral.

Decline and Fall

With greater success came increased pressure. Williams felt an obligation to continue producing hit songs. He allegedly bought some songs under shady circumstances and called them his own. The relationship between Hank and Audrey Williams also grew tense, as allegations of mutual infidelities flew. His problem with alcohol grew worse. In January 1952, Audrey Williams filed for divorce.

"As his personal life began its disintegration," Escott wrote, "Hank's recording career swung into high gear. Every record he released under his own name during the last two years of his life entered the top five of the country charts, and many were covered for the pop market. Williams canceled some sessions, and failed to show at others, but when he actually appeared in front of the studio microphone, it seemed as though he could do no wrong."

Williams could not maintain the front for long. Although he made television appearances and had even gotten some movie offers, Williams lost what little control he had maintained over his drinking. He also began abusing amphetamines and barbiturates. In 1952, he lost his job with the Grand Ole Opry and was forced to return to the Louisiana Hayride. He moved into his mother's boarding house in Montgomery, Alabama.

Williams married for the second time on October 19, 1952. His new bride was Billie Jean Jones, the daughter of the Bossier City, Louisiana, police chief. The wedding took place three times at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium for an estimated 14,000 spectators who paid to see the event. The couple was only married for ten weeks before Williams' reckless lifestyle caught up with him. On New Year's Eve, 1952, he was riding in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac to a show in Ohio. Williams was heavily medicated and drunk when he died of an alcohol-induced heart attack sometime during the night in Oak Hill, West Virginia. On January 1, 1953, Williams was pronounced dead. He was 29 years old.

Williams' funeral in Montgomery, Alabama, drew more than 20,000 mourners from all over the country. Country stars Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, Red Foley, Carl Smith, and Webb Pierce sang in memory of their lost friend. The Montgomery Advertiser reported (as noted in Country: The Music and Musicians ) "They came from everywhere, dressed in their Sunday best, babies in their arms, hobbling on crutches and canes, Negroes, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, small children, and wrinkled faced old men and women. Some brought their lunch."

Legal Wrangling

Almost immediately after Williams' death, a battle over his estate broke out between the surviving members of the family. Audrey Williams, Billie Jean Williams, and Williams' mother sued and counter-sued for years. Lawsuits continued into the late 1980s between Hank Williams, Jr., and the "lost daughter" of Hank Williams, Sr., who was conceived during a short affair Williams had after his first wife threw him out of the house. Jett Williams was born five days after her father's death. Like her half brother, she later launched a singing career and hired several members of her father's Drifting Cowboys to play backup.

Despite his excesses the controversy regarding his estate, Williams could be proud of his musical legacy. In The Illustrated History of Country Music, music legend Johnny Cash stated, "Hank Williams is like a Cadillac. He'll always be the standard for comparison." Williams' trademark hillbilly-tinged sound remains a country music staple. In 1990, Poly Gram Records released a popular collection of every known single he recorded. In 1998, famed auction house Christie's, auctioned off one of his old Gibson guitars. The guitar fetched $112,000. Clearly, Williams continues to lure fans.

The key to Williams' long-lasting popularity "is passion," concluded Escott. "The entire range of human emotions is within these recordings: love, hate, envy, joy, guilt, despair, remorse, playfulness, sorrow, and more. The lyrics were simple, but simplicity does not preclude meaning. In writing for the man who could barely sign his name, Hank Williams wrote for us all." He cited some of Williams' more poignant lyrics, noting: "There can be few who haven't felt as though Hank Williams has read their mail, their diary, or their mind."

Further Reading

Brown, Charles T., Music U.S.A.: America's Country and Western Tradition, Prentice-Hall, 1986.

Country: The Music and the Musicians, edited by Paul Kingsbury and Alan Axelrod, Country Music Foundation, 1988.

Escott, Colin, Hank Williams: The Biography, Little, Brown and Company, 1994.

The Illustrated History of Country Music, edited by Patrick Carr, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1979.

Williams, Jett, with Pamela Thomas, Ain't Nothin' as Sweet as My Baby: The Story of Hank Williams' Lost Daughter, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.

Williams, Roger M., Sing a Sad Song: The Life of Hank Williams, University of Illinois Press, 1981.

Forbes, March 9, 1998, p. 249.

"Hank Williams: The Complete Website," http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/9132/ (February 12, 2000).

Hank Williams, Sr., "Welcome to the Official Website of: Hank Williams, Sr.," http://www.cmgww.com/music/hank/ (February 12, 2000). □

Faces of Spina Bifida Magazine

Hank Williams, Sr.

December 29, 2011   Famous Faces

Faces Archive | Source

"The far best explanation of his problem lies in the symptoms of spina bifida occult in Hank's medical reports and in his autopsy. Spina bifida occult is a birth defect; the vertebral arches fail to unite and this allow the spinal cord to herniate, to extend outward from the spine. Hank's type was not so severe. there evidently was no external growth, but even the lesser version (the occult) can leave a mark on the back and effect the lower extremities. The ailment is progressive and thus explains some of Hank's problems, especially his occasional paralysis, along with his trouble with sports as a child."
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Joan of Arc, Maiden of Orlѐans, Savior of France, Saint, Danced with Fairies and Commanded a Nation's Army by age seventeen, and was Martyred by age nineteen

A very special Child of God whose Faith was unwavering through life and death!

Louis Kossuth, a great Hungarian revolutionary hero and champion of liberty in the 19th century said this about Joan of Arc.

"Consider this unique and imposing distinction.  Since the writing of human history began, Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation at the age of seventeen."

Let me give you a brief overview of her life.

Most of us have heard the story of Joan of Arc, the French girl born January 6, 1412, who had visions and heard voices from St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch.  The voices started at age 13½, the summer of 1425.

By May 1428, she no longer doubted the source of the voices and their insistence she must help the king of France.  She was to lead the French army against the English and stop the English from conquering France.  When her voices told her to see the king's commander, she made the trip in June and faced disrespect by the rude and dissolute soldier.

On October 12, 1428, English troops surrounded the town of Orlѐans, and laid siege, a truly tragic turn of events.  As the ever more insistent voices demanded she see the king, she went again in January 1429 and got to the king on March 8.

Upon convincing the king of her sincerity and determination, Joan became supreme commander of the French army, and on April 30, Joan led the previously demoralized French army into Orlѐans.  By May 8, Joan had captured all the surrounding English forts and raised the siege.

On July 29, 1429, Charles VII, with Joan at his side, was crowned King in the city of Reims.

Joan continued her ferocious assault on the English and on May 24, 1430, an overwhelming Burgundian force, loyal to the English, captured Joan after the battle of Compiègne.

Sold to the English, Joan went to prison where her hands, feet, and neck where locked in chains, while being held for an Ecclesiastical court trial, where she was charged with witchcraft and heresy.

The trial started February 21, 1431, convicted Joan of being a heretic on May 29, 1431, and burnt her at the stake May 30, 1431.  She died at nineteen years of age.

Consider the brief career of one of the most beloved heroes in French history and successful military commanders in the history of warfare.  By age 13, Joan began hearing voices.  These voices convinced her to go to the king by age 17 with her plan to save France.

She spent one year, until age 18, leading her troops in driving the English from Northern provinces of France.  Once captured, she spent her final year as a prisoner of the English before her death at the stake, at just 19½ years old.

    

In the end, the king she installed and the country she saved had abandoned Joan, as had her beloved Roman Catholic Church.  Joan of Arc, God's warrior, and French martyr, disappeared and seemed forgotten.

So how did this convicted heretic become one of the most popular and least understood saints in the church?

That, my friends, is the rest of the story and what a story Joan has to tell.

To discover the truth about Joan of Arc we must journey through a story with all the elements of an Academy Award winning movie.  Her story was set against a backdrop of the previous millennium, when France earned recognition as "God's special country" for Roman Catholics, with her people dedicated to faith and the church.

Timeline - All Dates Anno Domini A.D. the year of our Lord

33        Death of Jesus

305      Death of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

306      Death of Saint Margaret of Antioch

324      Constantine calls the Council of Nicea

1291    Crusades end

1347    Black Death Plague hits Europe

1336    Hundred Years War between England, Scotland, and France begins

1412    Joan of Arc born in Domremy, Lorraine Province

1425    Joan first hears voices and saw visions

1428    June - Joan tries to reach French King

1428    October - English lay siege to Orlѐans

1429    March 8 - Joan finally meets French king

1429    April 30 - Joan, Supreme Commander of French army, enters Orlѐans

1429    May 8 - English abandon siege of Orlѐans

1429    July 29 - Charles VII, with Joan at his side, is crowned King in Reims

1430    May 24 - Joan is captured at Compiѐgne & sold to English

1431    February 21 - Joan's trial begins for witchcraft & heresy

1431    May 29 - Joan convicted of being heretic

1431    May 30 - Joan burnt at the stake

1455    King and Pope seek revision of her trial results

            Appellate Court reverses and annuls verdict

1776    Lorraine Province (Domremy) joins French Kingdom

1787    French Revolution begins

1793    Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette put to death

1803    Napoleon begins rehabilitating Joan's reputation 

1869    Bishop of Orlѐans requests investigation for beautification

1896    Mark Twain anomalously publishes Joan of Arc

1909    April 11 - Pope Pius X issues beatification decree

1920    Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan a Saint

            

Early in the millennium, Europe had just completed the crusades (1095 until 1291).

During the one hundred years before Joan lived, from 1347-1352 the Black Death plague killed 20 million Europeans, (forty to fifty percent of the entire European population), and up to one hundred million people would die worldwide before it was through.

From 1336 to 1443, the Hundred Years War raged between France, England, and Scotland.  By the time Joan was born, France was nearly devastated, England was prepared to appoint the next king of France, the French had lost most of the populous Northern provinces, and the French army was a disgrace.

Such was the world as we enter the age of Joan in 1412.

How often do biographies of Saints talk about a childhood raised in an environment that finds a blending of ancient magic, mystery, and fairies with modern Christianity, at least modern in 1412?

Most people do not know that Joan, the patron saint of France, was not a native of France and did not live in France when told she must save France.

On several occasions, her voices shared prophecy with Joan, which she passed on to authorities at a time the Inquisition was suspicious of any metaphysical or mystical activities including seers and prophets.

The total disregard for law, morality, respect, and justice played out between the French, the English, the church, and Joan's accusers during the Ecclesiastical court trial and her death by burning at the stake, is among the most malicious, evil, and heinous acts in history.

During her one year as a prisoner of the English in Rouen, Joan received the most disgusting, degrading, humiliating, and demeaning treatment humanly possible from extreme mental to physical abuse.

No one of authority in the church or France made any effort to help Joan in her defense or attempt to ransom her.       

Why did it take the church 489 years, nearly one-half a century, to complete the canonization of St. Joan?

From the time Joan was born in 1412 until her canonization in 1920, there were 53 popes and 3 antipopes including two who ignored her direct appeal for help. 

Why did English writers and historians in the 17th century, and then Scottish writers in the 19th century become the first to champion her cause for sainthood?

Perhaps most unusual of all, why did beloved American storyteller Mark Twain write a most extraordinary and thoroughly documented biography about Joan of Arc, a book he considered his best work, which took Samuel Clemens 12 years to research and two more years to write?

Mark Twain's story, Joan of Arc, appeared in serial form in 1896 and book form in 1899, just a decade before Pope Pius X issued her beautification decree April 11, 1909, and two decades before her canonization in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

  

As you can see, I have a lot to cover to do justice to the reputation and stature of one of my favorite saints.

As Mark Twain noted, the details of the life of Joan of Arc form a biography, which is unique among the world's biographies in one respect: It is the only story of a human life, which comes to us under oath, the only one that comes to us from the witness stand.

The official records of the Great Trial of 1431, and of the Process of Rehabilitation of a quarter of a century later, remain preserved in the National Archives of France, and they furnish with remarkable fullness the facts of her life.

Joan was born in the village of Domremy, in the east of France.  It was part of the independent Duchy of Bar, itself part of Lorraine, the last province to join the French kingdom in 1776.  Joan was not even a citizen of France although Domremy was loyal to the French King Charles VII.   

Just outside the village lay an ancient and magical forest, and for over 500 years, the Fairies of the forest watched over the village children.  To honor their protectors, on summer days the children gathered in the forest around a magnificent beech tree, to sing and dance for hours together.

Here they made wreathes of flowers and placed them on the tree and in the spring beside the tree, to please the fairies that lived there.  For hundreds of years, the kids of Domremy were the Children of the Tree.  Joan was one of these children according to the court transcripts.

When she was 13, Joan began hearing voices she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Margaret of Antioch.  Catherine and Margaret were among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of ancient Catholic martyrs and saints called upon to help Europe overcome the Black Death Plague just 50 years earlier.

Ironically, both Saints were beautiful, humble, strong, and defiant and died teenage virgins, killed because they refused to marry prominent Roman officials.  Saint Margaret was 15 years old when she died in 306 AD and Saint Catherine was 18 in 305 AD when she died.  They shared many attributes with Joan.

On several occasions, her voices told her prophecies to pass on to others, in order to overcome roadblocks.  For example, she was able to convince the French commander to help her see the king with the help of her voices.  The second time she saw the commander, in February, she told him the French suffered a great defeat in the Battle of Herring, which proved to be true.

When she finally met the king, she went straight to the disguised monarch and bowed, stunning the room full of the king's court and the king.  When she told the king his secret that no one else knew, it convinced the skeptical king to let her proceed.  Her voices guided her through all the traps

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Joan prepared to take command of the army, and her voices told her to create a standard, bearing the words Jesus and Maria, with a picture of God the Father, and kneeling angels presenting a fleur-de-lis.

"I had a banner, the field of which was sown with lilies. On it the world was represented [the image of God holding the world] and two angels at the sides. It was of linen or white boucassin. There was written upon it, as it seems to me, these words: Jesus Maria, and it was fringed with silk."

                        Joan of Arc's description of her banner at her trial in Rouen

Joan of Arc carried a special banner (battle standard) made by a Scottish painter (Hauves Poulvoir) while she was at Tours preparing to lead the army of France.  Joan testified at her trial that she created her Banner by the command of God.  Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret gave her instructions about the design and told her to take it and bear it boldly.

The king offered her a sword to carry when leading the army but she begged to search for an ancient sword buried behind the alter in the chyapel of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois.

In the very spot her voices indicated, they found the sword.

Perhaps the most interesting fact connected with her voices at this early stage of her mission is a letter Sire de Rotslaer wrote from Lyons on April 22, 1429, delivered at Brussels and duly registered, as the manuscript to this day attests, before any of the events occurred.

The Maid, he reports, said

 "that she would save Orléans and would compel the English to raise the siege, that she herself in a battle before Orléans would be wounded by a shaft, but would not die of it, and that the King, in the course of the coming summer, would be crowned at Reims, together with other things which the King keeps secret." 

All came true.

The accuracy of the prophecies of Joan, her use of men's white armor to hide her beauty and protect her virginity, the strict discipline and morality she demanded of her army, and her fearless tendency to lead her troops into battle brandishing only her Banner, won over the king and the military.

Make no mistake, in a few short years our poor, illiterate village girl who knew nothing about commanding armies and could not even ride a horse, was Supreme Commander of the French army leading her worn out troops into battle on her magnificent stallion, against one of the world superpowers, England.

Calling upon faith stronger than most can ever imagine, she stopped a siege, drove the English into retreat, and brought to an inglorious end the Hundred Years War England fought against France and Scotland.  Her brilliant military strategy enabled France to beat the odds and in time drive the English out of France.   

When they captured Joan under mysterious circumstances, she already knew from her voices she would live for just one more year, and it would be the most difficult year of her life.  Her freedom was still possible through ransom or a prisoner exchange by the French or the church but no one tried, so her captures sold her to English supporters.

Politics, greed, deceit, fear, humiliation, all drove those in power to want her to go away, vanish from the history books.  There can be no doubt that the English feared their prisoner with a superstitious terror, and were ashamed of the dread which she inspired, so they were determined at all costs to take her life.

An Ecclesiastical court trial of Joan began in the English-held city of Rouen.  Her attitude was always fearless, and March 1 while being interrogated, Joan boldly announced that, "within seven years' space the English would have to forfeit a bigger prize than Orléans."  In fact,Paris was lost to Henry VI on November 12, 1437 — six years and eight months afterwards.

There is no time to explain the outrageous manipulation of the government, church, and rules of law as she was continually tortured, interrogated, and humiliated before the courts.  On March 17, 1431, Joan stood accused of 70 counts of witchcraft and being a heretic, the number of charges then reduced to 12.

Torture and techniques to break her spirit continued until May 9 when it was clear she would not break.  In the end, they dropped the witchcraft charges and convicted her of being a heretic, with the most prominent charge being she wore the clothes of a male.

Threatened and exhausted, at one point she signed a retraction witnesses said was just eight lines long, that took over a half hour to read, which included a provision if her life was spared she could never wear male clothes again.  The jailers and prosecutors then conspired to threaten to rape her and within a few days of her agreement, she returned to wearing male clothing to discourage rape.

On May 29, a court of thirty-seven judges decided unanimously that the Maid was a relapsed heretic, thus sentencing her to death at the stake, a sentence actually carried out the next day, May 30, 1431.

The morning of the execution Joan made her confession and received Communion.  Witnesses to her death said her demeanor at the stake was such as to move even her bitter enemies to tears.

She asked for a cross, which she embraced, and then held before her while she called continuously upon the name of Jesus, as the flames engulfed her.  After her death, soldiers took her heart, which failed to burn, and her ashes, and unceremoniously threw them into the Seine River to make sure no relics emerged.

Indeed, they almost succeeded in making her vanish for there was no protest, riots, or pilgrimages over Joan's conviction or burning at the stake.  The fact the English controlled

In yet another peculiar twist to the Joan story, her brothers embraced another young girl and for the next 20 years declared that Joan had escaped the fire and was alive.  As a result, her family continued to receive financial assistance from the province and the brothers made many appearances with the fake Joan receiving gifts and money.

About twenty-four years after her death, Charles VII, concerned that his monarchy was achieved thanks to a convicted heretic, and it might jeopardize hereditary claims to the throne in the future, sought a revision of her trial, the procès de réhabilitation.

This time the French monarchy and Pope were deeply involved as both wanted to correct a major failure to defend Joan during the first trial.  Now an appellate court constituted by the pope, after long inquiry and examination of witnesses, reversed and annulled the sentence pronounced by a local tribunal under Cauchon's presidency.

The illegality of the former proceedings was clear, and it speaks well for the sincerity of this new inquiry.  With the rejection of the original sentence, there was some degree of reproach upon both the King of France and the Church at large, seeing that so great an injustice existed for such a long time.

Still little came of the action in terms of Joan and her standing in the church and history books.  English writers beginning in the seventeenth century began writing favorably about the Maid and by the nineteenth century De Quincey, in particular, showed more respect for her than those in her own land.

As for France, the St. Joan of Arc Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico describes the political and secular issues in France during the ensuing years as follows.

The powers in charge during the French Revolution (1787 -1799) were very cruel to Joan of Arc's memory.  They canceled the May 8th procession that had been held at Orleans continuously since two years after Joan's death.  They also destroyed statues and crosses that were set up to honor Joan of Arc and they burned her relics, consisting of her hat that she gave to Charlotte, her standard and a sword that had belonged to her.

For the next ten years Joan's memory was relegated to the shadows of French life as on July 14, 1789, the Parisian crowd seized the Bastille, a symbol of royal tyranny.  On June 20–21, 1791, Louis XVI tried to flee the country, but was captured at Varennes, and brought back to Paris.

Believing they were betrayed by the king and the aristocrats, the Paris revolutionaries rose on August 10, 1792, occupied Tuileries Palace, where Louis XVI was living, and imprisoned the royal family in the Temple.  At the beginning of September, the Parisian crowd broke into the prisons and massacred the nobles and clergy held there.

Meanwhile, the National Convention was divided between the Girondins, who wanted to organize a bourgeois republic in France and to spread the Revolution over the whole of Europe, and the Montagnards (“Mountain Men”), who, with Robespierre, wanted to give the lower classes a greater share in political and economic power.  

In spite of efforts by the Girondins to save him, judgment on Louis XVI was passed by the National Convention of revolutionaries, he was condemned to death for treason, and executed on January 21, 1793; the queen, Marie-Antoinette, was guillotined nine months later.

It was not until 1803, when Napoleon once more made it 'politically correct' to honor Joan of Arc, by giving his permission for the May 8th ceremonies at Orleans to be resumed.  Because Joan had fought the English, Napoleon made use of her to further his own campaign against them.  He made her an official symbol of French patriotism and a national heroine.

Therefore, her popularity among the people grew.  All during the first half of the nineteenth century France was struggling against England in one way or another and during this time many 'histories' were written about her.

It took Jules Quicherat, a French historian, five years from 1841-1845 to compile all the documents concerning Joan of Arc into five volumes.  Not only did he publish the complete texts of the trial of Condemnation and Nullification but he also gathered excerpts from chronicles, literary works, letters, public documents and the accounting ledgers from the city of Orleans into his scholarly work.

Single handedly Quicherat sparked a renaissance of interest in Joan of Arc among the scholars who in turn translated the Latin and Old French into modern French.  By doing this the general public could finally read for themselves Joan's own words and at last she became for them a real historical figure.

With this development, the whole spectrum of political ideologies began to claim her.  Joan became the champion for many causes from the atheistic anticlerical Freemasons, the Socialist Nationalists and Communists to the conservative Catholic Monarchists.  From the 1850's on France was shaken by a savage anticlerical movement.  Those who supported the Church decried the rapid spread of atheistic secular-humanism and the growing immorality of the nation and they used Joan of Arc as a symbol to reclaim these souls.

The Church was not blind to the upsurge in popularity that Joan of Arc had achieved and on May 8, 1869, Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans with the support of eleven other French Bishops petitioned Rome to begin the process of Canonization.  Bishop Dupanloup declared, "Not only Orleans and France but also the whole world venerate God's actions through Joan of Arc, the piety and enthusiasm of this young girl, her purity and selflessness with which she always carried out the will of God.

"We wish that Your Holiness would now honor and exalt her memory.  This would be a just tribute to Joan of Arc, who in freeing her country also saved it from the heresy which might have become a danger.  It would also constitute a title of honor to the French people."

  

Unfortunately, with the coming of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and France's ensuing defeat, Bishop Dupanloup's request was put on hold.  During this war, France lost the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to the Germans and the French politicians used Joan of Arc as a symbol for a crusade to regain these territories.

In 1893, the French people overwhelmingly elected a Socialist government into power. Eight months later on January 27, 1894, Pope Leo XIII, in hopes of improving relations between the Vatican and the French government, extended an olive branch to them by officially beginning the process of Joan's Beatification.  In doing so he proclaimed the Maid to have been the venerable handmaiden of God.

As I mentioned earlier, Mark Twain's magnificent story, Joan of Arc, appeared in serial form in 1896 and book form in 1899, just a decade before Pope Pius X issued her beatification decree April 11, 1909, and two decades before her canonization in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.  Her sainthood was again delayed, this time by the outbreak of World War I.

Today it has been 603 years since the birth of this French heroine, but only 95 years since her canonization as a saint.  We are just beginning to understand the amazing story of faith Joan lived and her place in history as a military genius, a visionary and prophet, a sanctified virgin, and a soldier of God.

Joan's story is far too vast to give justice to and far too meaningful to interpret in such a short presentation as this but I hope she understands, and I urge all of you to learn more about Jehanne la Pucelle, Joan the Maid, our beloved Jeanne d'Arc, Joan of Arc.

In his book, Mark Twain wrote the following closing paragraphs about Joan of Arc.  Since Mark is my favorite American author and humorist - satirist, and about the most unlikely person on Earth to write about a Saint, I take his observations very seriously.  This is what he said about Joan the Maid.

"We know what Joan of Arc was like, without asking -- merely by what she did.  The artist should paint her spirit -- then he could not fail to paint her body aright.  She would rise before us, then, a vision to win us, not repel: a lithe young slender figure, instinct with "the unbought grace of youth," dear and bonny and lovable, the face beautiful, and transfigured with the light of that lustrous intellect and the fires of that unquenchable spirit.

"Taking into account, as I have suggested before, all the circumstances -- her origin, youth, sex, illiteracy, early environment, and the obstructing conditions under which she exploited her high gifts and made her conquests in the field and before the courts that tried her for her life -- she is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced."

Thank you for sharing a few moments with me, thank Joan of Arc, and dieu vous bénisse.

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