Saint Joan of Valois

Joan of France was born in 1464, the daughter of King Louis XI. Born with a physical deformity, she was treated coldly at court and, as a child, was married for political reasons to her cousin Louis, Duke of Orléans. She remained faithful to him and even pleaded for his life when he was imprisoned for rebellion.

When Louis became King Louis XII in 1498, he obtained an annulment of the marriage. Joan accepted the humiliation peacefully and withdrew to Bourges as Duchess of Berry, where she devoted herself to prayer and to the poor. In 1501, with the help of the Franciscan Gilbert Nicolas, she founded the Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annonciades, whose rule was built on imitating the ten virtues of Mary found in the Gospels. She died in Bourges on February 4, 1505, and was canonized in 1950.

The Annonciade sisters in France and Belgium keep her feast with special devotion, and Bourges honors her as one of its saints.

Her story is often remembered by people who suffer rejection, broken marriages or disability, as a sign that God sees and honors those whom the world overlooks.