Patricia Deps

The fabulous life of Joan of Arc Patricia Deps

Saint Joan of Arc is famous for hearing voices telling her to fight for France during the Hundred Years' War, in the 15th century. After a meteorically successful start she was betrayed by King Charles VII, and found herself awaiting execution as a prisoner of the English in Rouen. The discovery of a letter written by a French priest, Charles de Vries, revealed that hours before being burned at the stake, Joan of Arc was rescued from prison and taken to a medieval leprosarium, the Maladrerie Saint-Lazare in Beauvais. Joan lived there in secret for 17 years until her death in 1464. The revealing letter passed through the hands of several people, including the writer François Rabelais, and finally came into the hands of Torino di Luca, a descendant of the infamous medieval serial killer Gilles de Rais. In 2019, the French researcher Danton Delafoe found out about the letter and set up a team of experts to unravel the mystery. Danton invited Beatrice Tallone, a trusted Italian paleopathologist, to join the team as commended by a Professor Cartwright. Beatrice visited the Professor in Saltaire where he handed her a relic, a keystone to the eventual outcome of the mystery. Danton's team met in Rouen to learn the contents of the letter and to plan their next steps. They needed to work in total secrecy because of the threat of attacks by the Vatican Brigade an extremist group that protects the relics and financial interests of the Catholic Church. To find Joan of Arc's skeleton, and to have definitive proof that Joan was not burned at the stake, the researchers relied on the help of Sahid, an Algerian private detective, Laurent, a French priest, and Nicolas de Troy, a Belgian historian and TV documentary host. The team needed to find a document hidden in a museum, in Vaucouleurs, with information about the whereabouts of Joan's remains. This document leads the team to a skeleton. Pursued by the extremist group, the team just manage to escape. In Paris, at a secure laboratory, advanced scientific analysis of the relics and skeleton reveals many surprises about Joan of Arc and her unlikely rescuer, Gilles de Rais, as well as details about her life and death at the Maladrerie. This information is passed officially to the mayor of Paris, Madame Blois and two journalists, and the true story of Joan of Arc is revealed to the world.