Compagnons de Jeanne d'Arc

The Compagnons de Jeanne d'Arc (Companions of Joan of Arc) was an association honouring saint Joan of Arc. From 1937 to 1939 it organised mass patriotic and religious demonstrations at Domrémy in her honour.

Participants

Demonstrations

9 May 1937

It was organised by the Amis du berceau de Jeanne d'Arc, with the collaboration of the Compagnons de Jeanne d'Arc. 50 parliamentary deputies took part, of which 21 belonged to the URD group in the Chamber, including Louis Marin, François Valentin, Xavier Vallat and Philippe Henriot. 20,000 people were present. The ceremonies consisted of a mass, with a sermon by the Bishop of Saint-Dié and addresses by Louis Madelin, Charles Berlet and the senator Charles Reibel.

1 May 1938

It was organised jointly by the two associations. Marcel Boucher obtained the patronage of the government and the presence of the army, represented by a military band and the commandant of the XXe corps. The demonstration was larger but it remained linked to the Catholic world. The Church, Action catholique and Catholic periodicals of Lorraine gave their support. The mass was celebrated by Cardinal Verdier and two other bishops. The crowd heard addresses by Louis Marin, Marcel Boucher, Maxime Real del Sarte and maréchal Franchet d'Espérey. The parliamentary deputies who were present were from the centre-right or right of the Chamber.

4 June 1939

It benefitted from the attention brought by the visit to Lorraine of the cardinal legate Villeneuve, surrounded by numerous bishops. Several tens of thousand people were present at the open air mass in front of the new basilica, at the procession and the addresses which were by Maxime Real del Sarte, Marcel Boucher, and General Weygand. The parliamentary deputies present were still from the centre-right or the right.

A current minister Auguste Champetier de Ribes, minister of war veterans and pensions, and a Catholic member of the Parti démocrate populaire was present, as well as the prefec of the Vosges. Besides, the highest authorities of the Republic were part of the comittee of honour of the association.^[1]

Since 1938, a municipal order prohibited the sale or distribution of newspapers as well as the sale or carrying of political signs on the territory of the commune during the celebrations. Le Parti social français had taken advantage of the occasion in 1937 to distribute their newspaper.^[2]

References

1. ^ Le président de la République, Albert Lebrun, le président de la Chambre des députés, Herriot, les présidents du conseil Daladier, Camille Chautemps, Tardieu, Pierre Laval et Pierre-Étienne Flandin, les maréchaux Pétain et Franchet d'Espérey, les généraux Weygand, Édouard de Castelnau et Gouraud. Daladier a donné son adhésion au moment de la crise de Munich, à la demande de Marcel Boucher. Font aussi partie du comité d'honneur la plupart des parlementaires lorrains, dont Marc Rucart et Gaston Thiébaut, député de Verdun, radicaux-socialistes, et trois cardinaux, les cardinaux Verdier, archevêque de Paris, Emmanuel Suhard, archevêque de Reims, et Alfred Baudrillart, recteur de l'Institut catholique. Cf. le périodique de l'association, "Les Compagnons de Jeanne d'Arc", n° 1, janvier 1939.
2. ^ Jean-François Colas, Les droites nationales en Lorraine dans les années 1930 : acteurs, organisations, réseaux, Thèse de doctorat, Université de Paris X-Nanterre, 2002, T. II, t. II, p. 376