DNA test for Joan
of Arc
This article appeared in the
Guardian on Tuesday
February 14 2006 on p23 of the International
news section. It was last updated at 00:38 on February 14
2006. Kim Willsher in Paris
History contends that the ashes of Saint Joan of Arc were gathered
from the pyre on which she was burned alive and tossed into the river
Seine.
Anxious to avoid creating a martyr, the English, who had ordered her
death in 1431, wanted nothing left of the 19-year-old French heroine.
According to legend, however, a devoted follower managed to find and
conceal some of her remains, including fragments of charred rib and
material from clothing, that today are one of the Roman Catholic church's
most precious relics.
Now DNA tests are to be carried out on the Pucelle d'Orléans (the Maid
of Orleans), who was killed 575 years ago for being a heretic and a witch
after she claimed voices from God had told her to drive the English from
France.
Philippe Charlier, a genetic specialist at the Raymond-Pointcaré
hospital at Garches, west of Paris, said the tests would solve the mystery
over the relic.
"The remains include fragments of ribs, material, wood and traces
of human body tissues on pieces of bone and wood from the pyre," he
said.
Joan of Arc, was burned at the stake, but because her heart remained
intact - seen in the 15th century as a miracle - her remains were cremated
on two more occasions before being thrown in the river. "Today we can
give medical reasons for why the heart, lungs and intestines might not
have burned but in those days it was considered a miracle," said Dr
Charlier. "They burned the remains twice more as they were very
determined there should be nothing left."
He added: "We won't be able to say, 'Yes this is Joan of Arc', but
within six months we will able to say if these remains belong to a female
of 19 years old whose body was burned three times in Rouen in 1431."
Born in Domrémy in 1412, Joan of Arc began hearing voices at 13
telling her to liberate France from the English. At 17 she led an army to
relieve Orleans. After accepting the surrender of Troyes, she and her army
escorted Charles VII to Rheims for his coronation in 1429.
She was later captured and handed over to the English and then tried by
a group of clergy who had to be coerced into finding her guilty in 1431.
She was made a saint in 1920.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/feb/14/france.internationalnews
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