Saint Joan of Arc Church

D. Vasbien

The Church of Saint Joan of Arc is the first parish church dedicated to Joan of Arc and has the largest collection of Joan of Arc stained glass windows in France. This church is listed in its entirety in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments. With its castle-shaped architecture, it aims to evoke the Middle Ages. Tours are available all year round on request for a minimum of 8 people. Contact Catherine Guyon at 06 10 66 90 21. This neo-Gothic style church was the first in the world dedicated to Joan of Arc, beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. It was built shortly before the First World War in Lunéville, a garrison town located around fifteen km from the German border imposed by the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). In July 1910, thanks to a dispensation from Pope Pius X (canon law only allowed a canonized saint to be taken as a titular saint). Bishop Turinaz of Nancy erected the new parish of "Blessed Joan of Arc" and entrusted his first priest, Father Émile Gérardin (1876-1957), with the task of building the church. He called upon a young Parisian architect, Jules Criqui (1883-1951), who used avant-garde techniques. The foundation stone was laid on April 17, 1911, and the consecration of the completed building took place eighteen months later, on October 17, 1912. Its style is inspired by the military architecture of the 15th century, the time of Joan of Arc. With its loopholes, its battlements, its machicolations and its four summit turrets, the tower evokes a dungeon which one enters by crossing an iron portcullis surmounted by a shield with the arms of Joan of Arc and her motto "God first served". The interior nave, devoid of columns, is reminiscent of an armory. In the choir, the statue of Joan of Arc listening to her voices (work of the sculptor Allard) invites prayer. The statues of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin come from the Pierson workshop in Vaucouleurs, as do those of the Saint Joseph altarpiece, offered by Mr Keller, former mayor of Lunéville, in thanks for the protection granted to the town during the First World War. But what really adorns this church is its magnificent set of stained glass windows created by the Nancy glassmakers Janin and Benoit between 1912 and 1947. These stained glass windows, with their warm and luminous tones, both varied and harmonized in a perfect ensemble whose program had been conceived from the outset by Abbot Gérardin, are of exceptional iconographic richness. Retracing, in 26 realistic and striking scenes, the life of Joan of Arc of Domremy to her beatification, they constitute a splendid history book. The concern for historical accuracy (buildings, costumes, armor), for the expression of the faces, both serene and moving, and for picturesque detail, is found on each stained-glass window which bears, in large letters, the inscription of the scene represented with, below, the name of the donors, and in the upper part, a word from Joan relating to the subject treated. In the ogive of the summit is inserted the coat of arms of the city where the event recounted took place. These stained glass windows constitute the most important iconographic cycle on glass concerning Joan of Arc, ahead of Orléans, Vaucouleurs or Compiègne. They are directly inspired by the Art Nouveau of the Nancy School, both in terms of the abundant floral decoration and the techniques used (acid etching, superposition of glass) with a quality worthy of Grüber. Text by Catherine GUYON.