The Wrong Warrior: Why Mayah Sommers isn't Our Joan of Arc

Why celebrating a troubled Scottish teen as the new Joan of Arc distracts us from true feminine saints and the saviour who has already won.

In 2008, a pupil I had been teaching, whose Religion book I still had sitting in my classroom, was murdered in South London. She was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted as she lay dead or dying, just moments from her front door. It is hard to contemplate such a thing. But girls do. Girls have to.

Avoiding walks that are too remote, dialling 999 with a finger hovered over the call button, ducking into a shop to shake off the creep hassling you, dressing modestly. We consciously and subconsciously minimise risk, but cannot eradicate it altogether.

There is, however, one thing neither I, nor any of my friends, their daughters, their sisters, mothers or aunts have ever done and that is, carry an axe and a 10 inch blade in the back of our trousers to brandish at would-be perverts.

As immigration increased in Northern Ireland, Protestants and Catholics formed a surprising alliance given their history. “My enemy’s enemy is my friend” so the saying goes.

How quickly we can coalesce against a putative common enemy, whilst being disastrously inept at doing so against the most dangerous one of all. The facts around the case of this wee Scottish girl are sketchy. Conclusions are being drawn and myths created before truth has a chance to put his pants on.

Notwithstanding, we know the certain enemy of us all.

I have been surprised by the number of Christians who have been celebrating this desperately sad image and likening her to Saint Joan of Arc.

As @jamesbggurney said on X

“I find this heroism thing misses the point. I see her and see a damaged young lady. To get to that point there has to be a breakdown in all her support, not just the society about her. If she is even vaguely typical of her peers, it shows things are worse than anyone thought”

One of the things this reveals is our desperate need for a hero in a world uprooted from it’s source. But this tragic young woman does not fit the Saintly mould Christians are trying to wedge her into.

Joan of Arc, who is a figure routinely misunderstood, is remarkable in her femininity. The modern world recalls her in battle, but overlooks her feminine receptivity to God’s will, her visions and ‘heavenly counsel’, her unfailing trust in his will and the strength (in him) to carry it out. Like all saints, her story is one of obedience to God, yet she has been co-opted by those championing modern ideas of equality, nationalism, of smashing the patriarchy, and even of transgender ideology.

Like Jael in the book of Judges, the key to understanding the significance of such a figure is how she answers Gods call as woman. This is the measure against which we should spotlight female heroes, not how fierce they look holding weapons.

In the book of Judges we learn that Sisera had 900 chariots with scythes and vehemently oppressed the sons of Israel. When his entire army is annihilated, he seeks refuge amongst those he thinks are his friends and does not suspect any danger from Sisera’s wife, Jael. She appears gentle and responds with generosity to his request for help.