This Day in History: Clara Barton Establishes the American Red Cross (1881)

Clara Barton Establishes the American Red Cross (1881)

The American Red Cross (ARC) is part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It provides disaster relief and emergency assistance in the US and is the country’s largest supplier of banked blood. American humanitarian Clara Barton established the ARC after working with the International Red Cross during a visit to Europe. Just months after its establishment, the ARC faced its first test when a fire where left thousands homeless and in desperate need of aid? More… Discuss

THIS DAY IN THE YESTERYEAR: Pope Benedict XV Canonizes Joan of Arc (1920)

Pope Benedict XV Canonizes Joan of Arc (1920)

Joan of Arc was a French military leader. As a girl, she began hearing voices—those of saints, she believed—exhorting her to aid the dauphin, who was being kept from the throne by the English in the Hundred Years War. Joan organized the French resistance that defeated the English siege of Orléans and had the dauphin crowned Charles VII. Captured and sold to the English by the Burgundians thereafter, she was tried for heresy and witchcraft. How old was she when she was burned at the stake? More… Discuss

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Leonard Cohen-Joan of Arc (Martyrdom:Last Supper To Sainthood)

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One of the best poems Leonard Cohen ever composed is Joan of Arc.
It goes like this:
Joan of Arc

Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
as she came riding through the dark;
no moon to keep her armour bright,
no man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, “I’m tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite.”
Well, I’m glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I’ve watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
“And who are you?” she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
“Why, I’m fire,” he replied,
“And I love your solitude, I love your pride.”

“Then fire, make your body cold,
I’m going to give you mine to hold,”
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and high above the wedding guests
he hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she clearly understood
if he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

Joan Of Arc-Leonard Cohen
[ Joan Of Arc Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

 

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