The Juana de Arco ring: a daring modern robbery returned to France the last relic of the saint

The story has its mysterious turns and ironies, and sometimes it grants late justice. The return to France of the Santa Juana de Arco ring – his only existing relic – almost six centuries after his unfair execution in Ruan, offers an eloquent reminder of it. Seized as a booty of war after his conviction during the War of the Hundred Years, the ring remained in England for centuries.

The circumstances of his return to the homeland in 2016 were in themselves epic, evoking the life of the famous Santa Guerrera, who found an unexpected ally in the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Now, Puy Du Fou, the Historical Theme Park That the relic has, has launched a campaign to build a chapel worthy of its meaning.

A bold acquisition and a chase by car

A period marked by Providence left little room for hesitation.

“It was a Wednesday night, in February 2016, when a historian friend called me: ‘Juana de Arco’s ring is on sale in London on Friday,’ I didn’t even know that Juana had a ring,” he said in an interview with the National Catholic Register – informative Socio of Aci Press – Nicolas de Villiers, president of Puy Du Fou. With only 48 hours, he dedicated himself to raising the necessary funds, calling friends and benefactors. Many contributed small sums from mouth to mouth —5 or 10 euros – and other major quantities, until they gather almost 400,000. “The price was going to rise quickly.”

During the auction, Villiers directed his lawyer in London by videoconference. Dozens of bidders retired while the sum was ascended, and Puy Du Fou’s team entered the bid right at the end. “There was a single opponent, but we surpassed it with rapid counter offers. When the hammer fell, the relic was ours,” Villiers continued, explaining that, by adding the taxes, the total agreed exactly, euro per euro, with what was achieved. “It was mysterious, providential, to say at least.”

However, winning the auction did not guarantee the release of the relic. “They immediately warned us: the National Council of the Arts of England considered it a national treasure. He could not leave the territory,” he explained. The symbolism was, in fact, significant: Juana de Arco had been convicted under English authority. His possessions were treated, therefore, war trophies. Allowing the relic to return to France was, for many in England, unthinkable.

The following Tuesday, the president of Puy Du Fou flew to London with a photographer. “I told my lawyer: ‘I want to see the ring,” he recalled. In the auction house he obtained permission to get him briefly and be photographed with him, guarded by three bodyguards “in charge of protecting the ring and instructed not to let me out with him.”

Then came the most daring play: “With a game of hands, changing casually vehicle – my photographer and I in a car, the bodyguards in another – we managed to mislead them in the streets of London,” he said. He returned directly to the airport and returned to France, with the ring.

The pressure quickly intensified in later days. “Every day the National Council of Arts called me: ‘Where is the ring? Where is the ring?'” He said that even Scotland Yard agents went to his office, demanding him to deliver it. “I told them that I had lost it, I didn’t know where it was; it was a particularly baroque, novel moment,” Villiers recalled with a smile. He added that he requested support from the French government, in vain.

The discreet complicity of Queen Elizabeth

Before this dead end, Villiers appealed to the famous lawyer Éric Dupond-Morteti (who was Minister of Justice of France between 2020 and 2024). His advice was simple: to appeal to Queen Elizabeth II.

In her emotional supplication to the sovereign, known for her benevolence, she recalled that her great grandmother, Queen Victoria, had once said that Juana’s relics should return to France.

Weeks later a letter came from the Buckingham Palace (which today hangs in his office).

“The queen cannot intervene in political matters,” reads officially. However, between the lines, the message was clear: despite her institutional impotence, she claimed to have let the authorities know that she would “consider the ring to return to France.”

The effect was immediate. “The next day, the Council of the Arts called: Everything is fixed; the papers are signed; it can keep the ring.” Juana de Arco had received, in a way, justice centuries after his conviction.

Immortalizing a shared heritage

For Catholics, the relic is a tangible bond with the Orleans maiden, who gave his life in fidelity to God and his homeland. For the La Vendée region, where Puy Du Fou is located, his symbolism is even deeper. This region paid a terrible price during the French Revolution, when almost 200,000 peasants and nobles were massacred for their loyalty to the Church and the King. In that land of sacrifice, the precious relic is erected as a symbol of faith that lasts against oppression, injustice and the passage of centuries.

Currently, the ring is exposed in a Renaissance room of the park. But Puy Du Fou has launched a campaign to build a chapel dedicated to Santa Juana de Arco, where the relic will be permanently consecrated. A collection urn allows visitors to make donations, so that the park creates a sanctuary where pilgrims can kneel before this testimony of faith.

“Year after year donations are collected,” said Villiers. “Very soon, a beautiful chapel will be built.”

For the Villiers family, whose ancestors fought the English next to the troops of George Washington during the American revolution, this master stroke (master coup) in London has the taste of a poetic historical reparation.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.