# Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc

Date: 1920

## The fact

On 16 May 1920 Benedict XV canonized [Joan of Arc](/people/joan-of-arc). This catalog stores that Vatican instrument. It does not treat canonization as empirical proof of 1429 visions.

## Context

Post-1918 France wanted a national saint. The church wanted a lay martyr. Both can sit on one date. Colonial and party uses of Jeanne after 1920 are not this bull.

Joan of Arc is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

The Benedict XV Vatican portal and Britannica independently date 16 May 1920.

Official or archival record: Benedict XV — Vatican documentation portal (https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/en.html; Holy See).

## Significance

Legal-memory path inside a church. High confidence on the canonization date; none on supernatural verification.

A saint is not a rehabilitation trial. 1456 remains the legal quashing.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1920 canonization by Benedict XV. Not established: that 1920 verified voices, or that it is a women’s-rights statute.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Joan of Arc: https://factrail.ai/people/joan-of-arc

## Drivers

- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/en.html
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/joa-canonization-1920