Joan of France

Having become Duchess of Berry, Joan administered her appanage with justice and generosity, notably aiding the victims of the plague in Bourges in 1499-1500. Assisted by her spiritual director, the Franciscan Gabriel-Maria (Gilbert Nicolas), and encouraged by the hermit Francis of Paola, she conceived the project of a new contemplative religious order dedicated to honoring the Virgin Mary. The rule she developed, titled after the "ten virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary," proposed that her nuns imitate the Marian virtues as the Gospel manifests them. The first monastery was built in Bourges starting in 1500-1502; the first eleven postulants arrived as early as May 1500, and the rule received papal approval in February 1502. The order, called the Order of the Annunciation or of the Ten Virtues of Our Lady, is characterized by enclosure, silence, humility, penance, and work. Joan herself made her profession in private on May 26, 1504, at Pentecost, committing herself with Father Gabriel-Maria to live according to the rule she had founded.

The reputation for holiness of Joan of France rests on the manner in which she endured the public humiliation of her repudiation. According to the sources of her cause, she is said to have remarked upon learning of the annulment of her marriage: "I remained twenty-two years with my husband, during which I was able to do little good; now I can make up for it." She accepted the sentence without complaint, thanking God for leaving her henceforth free to serve His Mother. Her spirituality was profoundly Marian and Eucharistic: she composed a rosary of ten Hail Marys in honor of the ten virtues of Mary—chastity, prudence, humility, faith, obedience, devotion, poverty, patience, charity, and compassion—which she strove to imitate. Venerated for her gentleness, her humility, and her charity toward the poor, she was nicknamed by the inhabitants of Bourges "the Good Duchess." Her devotion to the Cross and to the Passion of Christ, as well as her faithfulness in trial, made her a figure of patience and abandonment to the divine will, which nourished her reputation for holiness from a very early stage.

After her death on February 4, 1505, numerous miracles, particularly healings, were reported and sustained her reputation for holiness. The canonization process was introduced as early as 1614, but experienced long delays. Pope Benedict XIV beatified her on April 21, 1742, and extended her cult to all of France. The canonization did not occur until much later: Pope Pius XII proclaimed Joan of France a saint on May 28, 1950, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, four hundred and forty-five years after her death. Her liturgical feast is set for February 4, the anniversary of her passing. Her remains, interred in the Annonciade chapel in Bourges and having long remained intact, were scattered and burned by the Huguenots in 1562, during the Wars of Religion, which made the preservation of significant bodily relics impossible.

The legacy of Joan of France lies above all in the Order of the Annunciation which she founded and which survived her. Centered on the imitation of the ten virtues of the Virgin Mary, enclosure, and contemplation, this order spread from Bourges. Although the original monastery of Bourges was suppressed during the French Revolution, the religious life of the Annunciation was maintained, and there are still monasteries of the Annunciation today in France, Belgium, Costa Rica, and Poland. The Diocese of Bourges preserves the memory of the "Good Duchess" and the Marian spirituality she bequeathed. Her figure is readily presented as a model for people tried by difficult marital or family situations, due to the dignity and faith with which she endured her repudiation. A queen turned nun, foundress, and saint, Joan of France remains a striking figure of French spirituality at the end of the Middle Ages.