The real Joan of Arc

There is a terrific story from the life of St. Francis of Assisi about one of his first disciples, a fellow called Brother Juniper. One day, Juniper goes into the woods, where a herd of pigs is grazing. He grabs one of the pigs and cuts off its foot so he can feed a sick brother. Trouble is, they’re not his pigs. They belong to a swineherd who lives near the friary. Also, Juniper didn’t kill the thing first.

So, the swineherd finds one of his pigs hobbling around a bleeding stump, and he’s pretty miffed. He storms up to the friary and starts tearing into Brother Juniper, calling him “a fantastical fool and a wicked thief.” Juniper explains to the swineherd that the pig ultimately belongs to God, and since he (Juniper) was acting out of love for his brother, he was perfectly entitled to the pig’s foot. “I tell you,” he says, “this foot did the sick brother so much good that if I had cut off the feet of a hundred pigs instead of one, I believe that God would have been very pleased.”

The swineherd is so moved that he goes back to the woods, kills the three-footed pig (which was probably the right thing to do anyway), and gives the meat to the friars. St. Francis is thrilled. “Would to God, my brethren,” he cries, “that I had a forest of such Junipers!”