MODERN JOAN OF ARC.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14286, 1 May 1917, Page 9

MODERN JOAN OF ARC.

FARM GIRL WHO" BAYS iSHE CAN SAVE FRANCE. VISIONS AND' VOICES, PARIS, March 8. Mile. I'erchaud, ai 20j-y ear-old fanner's daughter", who has passed nil liev life in, the tiny lianilefc 'of l*uy 'St., Bonnet, near Cholet, claims to 'be 'a nlodern Joan of Arc, HVIIO has ■heard divine voices calliiiig ""on her !to talce part in the great struggle to free France from ■her enemy (writes a- special correspondent). Since lier eaa-liest years shei lias been most pious,- and has attended ■» chapel near her home fcvery day. Recently, she says, while sl\e m«3 walking! across n field between the, farm and the chapel the Sacked Heart appeared to her", iuid a mysterious voice oi'dered her to deliver France. She, told; her parents, who la-ughed, and forbade her to mention the subject to any one else. The girl obeyed, but with her own hands sho built a small altar ia the fiald where she heard the Voices. 'Shortly afterwards- her story became known, and hundreds of people from neighboring to\Vris and village's came each. Sunday to -pray before the altar and deposit photographs of those men wlio were fighting a-t the front. BISHOP'S TEST. The girl's fame became known to the Bishop of Poitiers, who sent for her to test her. He received her with a. group' of prelatesj giving his own robes to another priest to wear, but the .girl was 1 not deceived. Looking the priest straight in the face,, she said : "You are not the bishop. I have never seen him, but 1 know you are not he, Then she walked straight to the bishop, knelt, and kissed : his hand. The bishop wrote to Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, who a.t the beginning of Lent sent for the girl to come to T?aris, \yhere she is staying, at the 1 convent in the Avenue Victor Hugo. j '"You "can riot .see her," said one of the ■ sisters .to me to-day. "She is praying for victory a,t the church of the Sacred Heart at Montmartre." • r ; There I found her. She is pale-faced,' with extraordinary blue eyes, and. very ;

frail-looking. She speaks slowly, like a person in a trance. "I can t'eH you notiliing," she said. "You we not a. believer. I must say: nothing to you." M. D'elahaye, Deputy' for Elaine et ■Loire, is greatly intei'ested in the girl. He tells me she has written the most marvellous work on theology he has ever seen. Despite the witing, : wllicli ' is\ 'what one would expect of am illiterate farm girl, and most fantastic spelling,! ithe work, which' has been examined by j noted theologians, im« •caused a great sensation. I