Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;krispy, post: 655428, member: 19065&quot;]Here&#039;s some historical background that I put together, which might help your understanding of this medal:</p><p><br /></p><p>The Patron Saint of France is the Virgin Mary, with the feast day August 15th, &quot;Notre Dame de l&#039;Assomption&quot;. The national flower of France is the Lily, called the &#039;Fleur de Lis&#039; (or The Royal Lily) and has been the national flower/symbol as long as the Bourbon dynasty ruled France. The three tipped lily also often symbolizes the &#039;holy trinity&#039; and France has been a Catholic country for a long time. You can see the Fleur de Lis in the shield of your medal. That shield is also known as a &#039;coat of arms&#039; and is the heraldic symbol of (Jeanne / Jehanne d&#039;Arc) Joan of Arc. The spellings for her slightly differ. Some of this information is very common, so I hope you are not bored yet.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reason I mentioned the &quot;main&quot; patron saint of France above is because there are also &#039;secondary&#039; patron saints such as Saint Martin and Saint Joan of Arc. Now, the thistle is indeed the Scottish national flower/emblem as mentioned in this thread already. You will see it used all over Scotland as well as being heavily used the world over in Scottish Rite and The Royal Order of the Thistle Masonic groups&#039; lodges.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for the thistle on your medal, the official flower of Lorraine is the thistle and interestingly their official motto is &quot;Qui s&#039;y frotte s&#039;y pique&quot; which means something like, Rub against it and get pricked! This is quite close to that of the Scottish Order of the Thistle&#039;s own motto &quot;Nemo me impune lacessit&quot;... both are a warning of sorts that say, &#039;Don&#039;t Mess Mith Us&#039;!</p><p><br /></p><p>The dates on your medal are the birth and death dates attributed to Jeanne d&#039;Arc.</p><p><br /></p><p>I first looked at this medal and I believed it&#039;s most likely a &#039;Catholic patron saint medal&#039; (maybe silver, but also likely pewter) which visitors to a cathedral or chapel in a Catholic church or a holy site not in a church may purchase and carry with them for personal, spiritual or superstitious reasons, to guide them, to give them strength or to give to others as a souvenir of their travel.</p><p><br /></p><p>According some info I found on Wikipedia, the parents of Jehanne d&#039;Arc were from a village in the duchy of Bar called Domrémy. It was later annexed into the province of Lorraine and renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle. So perhaps this is the region, Lorraine, where the thistle is symbolic, where your medal came from.(?)</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a modern day reference to a modified French flag used by the French Resistance during the war which employed the double-horizontal bar crucifix of Lorraine on their flag to symbolize Jehanne d&#039;Arc.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now I&#039;m not some super French history geek or anything, I do have some knowledge of European history, art and symbolism, and to tell the truth I have always like hagiography (the study of saints) but I&#039;m not a spiritual person myself, however, this was a fun medal to pick apart and suggest what the particular visual clues might mean.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is definitely worth asking your grandfather if he ever traveled through the area of Lorraine, which is on the northeastern side of France along the German border, especially if he was deployed in France or had R&amp;R time there. It&#039;s highly likely that if he was a soldier in Europe during WWII that he went through there and perhaps acquired this medal in that region.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in